A Gift from The Gods
by abyss1826
Summary: When Hades approaches Wonder Woman with the request to protect his recently orphaned daughter, how could she refuse? The only complication is that she doesn't have an extra bedroom. Will Sigrid adapt well to the team so soon after losing her only family member? Set begins in early June, in summer break 2011. Takes elements/concepts from the PJO series, but nothing more.
1. Chapter 1

He came to Diana in a dream, asking for a favor. She had never seen a god so distraught.  
"I wish to ask something of you," he said, draped in black and purple robes.

"And what may that be, my Lord Hades?" she asked politely.

"I know that I am not one to often sire demigods, however… things happen," Diana nodded. "The thing is my children are no more welcome on Mount Olympus than I am, and though Persephone is understanding and I can trust her to not take her anger with me out on the child," ('unlike some goddesses' he implied with a frown,) "The Underworld is no place to be raised. I would like to not have to have her join Artemis and her hunt unless it is her personal decision, but as of now I have no other safe options for her. I wish to ask you, if you could be her other option." He paused, as if afraid Diana would refuse him outright. When she did not, he continued. "Her mother died, or, was killed, rather unfortunately, last week, and her grandparents refused her. Her mother, Mirja, was a powerful sorceress, her own mother's parents being both Hekate and a man of the old Norse blood though her powers lay dormant to this day, and Mirja's father is unknowingly from the Celtic realm. Sigrid, my daughter, though she does not know it, is magic, and I fear that with the events of late she will unleash something by accident if she is not put somewhere safe and supportive."

"May I ask, Lord Hades, how Sigrid doesn't know she is magic? Did her mother hide her own powers from her?"

"That is...complicated…" the Lord of The Dead grimaced. "Are you familiar with my daughter Melinoë?"

"Not entirely, no."

"Well, she and Sigrid were made… similarly."

Diana raised her eyebrows.

"During the first ten years of our marriage I would not be in the best of moods when Persephone had to return to the surface. I would imagine what our child would look like if we had one to try and cheer myself up, I suppose, and eventually due to my powers she took shape into reality."

"And the same thing happened with Sigrid?"

"Yes, but it was more of a effort on Mirja's part to be honest. We had been together for twelve years already, and she understood that I didn't want anything more than an emotional relationship while Persephone had her time with her mother, but Mirja had always wanted a child of her own, and subconsciously her powers seemed to decide to make that happen. Her ideas of what our child would be like wrapped themselves in her magic combined with mine and my own magic, and we were woken up to the screams of a child. Sigrid knows nothing of this of course, because we were concerned that the knowledge would affect her negatively, on top of her knowing that she was a demigod. There have been… complications, due to her technical physiology however she has yet to become aware of them."

"What are those complications?"

"She recovers from fatal injuries, things that would kill even a demigod. Her being is magic that has constructed a living physical form due to the belief that it is mortal, however when it comes to true mortality, it heals itself like a god. Her soul is not something that can be reaped."

"How old is she?"

"Sigrid is fourteen."

"I am sure the Justice League and I will train her well."

"You will take her?"

"Yes. We have a team of young heroes with the League, I am sure that she will be able to become adjusted."

"Does this mean you will be adopting her, or your team will?"

"I unfortunately do not have a guest bedroom, however there is space at one of the League's locations with others living there as well, if you believe that would be a good alternative. I would be available to her and check in regularly of course."

"I will trust your judgment on that call. The paperwork will be on your nightstand, along with a folder of all of her legal documents. I have already gotten her American Citizenship." With that almost contextless statement, he removed a coin from a pocket in his robes. It was silver, with a throne decorated with bones and veins of metals on one side, and a throne decorated with flowers and pomegranate trees on the other. "If ever you are in need of a favor, bury it, and you will have my aide."


	2. Chapter 2

Diana's cousin was at the door promptly at eleven am, with two suitcases and a backpack. She was a pale girl, with a blotchy pink flush and blue veins showing through her lack of pigment. Her eyes were a startling purple hue, with the intensity and depth of polished sugilite under her long, wavy, obsidian hair and thick, brow reaching bangs. She wore a loose, black tank top and jean shorts. Around her neck hung three necklaces. One on a silver chain with a pendent shaped like a double headed war axe, the other two both on black cords. The one hanging just below the round collar of her shirt had a double pointed obelisk cut moonstone pendant, and the one hanging an inch and a half below that was a silver witches pentagram. When she tucked her hair behind her ear Diana saw that she had silver bracelets with stone beads of various types, as well as three ear piercings; two in the lobe and one in the mid cartilage. She also wore a silver pentagram ring on her right ring finger, next to a skull ring on her middle that Diana assumed would have come from the girl's father.

"H-hi." she said in an almost whisper when Diana opened her front door with a smile. She had looked at the legal documents her uncle had left, and understood both the foreign sounding name and why he had made a point to tell her his daughter now had American Citizenship. Her 'birth' certificate was from Finland, for Sigrid Iida Säde Mustonen on July 6, 1996.

"Hello Sigrid, it's nice to meet you." Diana greeted, " I don't have a guest room for you, unfortunately, but have a place where you can stay with a couple other people your age." She led the girl to where her room would be.

Sigrid shrugged, and put down her bags.

"I'm sorry you can't stay here with me, but I'll be there regularly."

"It's fine." Sigrid said quietly. Diana nodded, and left the girl to adjust to her surroundings.

And hour later Sigrid had eaten a sandwich and agreed to zeta tube to the Cave to meet Batman, Superman, Black Canary, and the resident team, as well as put things in her new room.

It was a Saturday, and at Black Canary's request due to the newcomer, they were in various parts of the rec room. The two gothamites were on the couches doing homework, Artemis occasionally asking Robin to check her work over on her math problems. Superboy, M'gann, Kaldur, and Kid Flash were in the kitchen, waiting for a batch of M'gann's improving cookies to cool.

 _Recognised, Wonder Woman 03. Unrecognised Persona Overridden by Wonder Woman 03._

When the two were announced by the computer they all watched Wonder Woman and the girl she had brought with her. Black Canary, Batman, and Superman entered the space from an adjacent room, and Robin looked at his mentor for an explanation for the newcomer. The explanation didn't need to come from him.

"Everyone," Wonder Woman said, capturing their attention and diverting it to the girl who had angled herself slightly behind the broad shouldered woman, "I would like you to meet my cousin, Sigrid Mustonen. She will be living here from now on."

"Seagreed?" Wally asked with a third of a still cooling cookie in his cheek before he was fixed with a stern look from Kaldur.

"Wait, how are you cousins, she looks way younger than you." Artemis noted, "Not that you like, look old, but she looks Rob's age."

"She's fourteen." Wonder Woman answered.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Sigrid," Black Canary said, holding out her hand with a smile. Sigrid put down one of her bags and took it nervously, with an anxious half-smile that didn't go unnoticed by the adults.

Said adults went to go talk together in another room so that Diana could relay her agreement with Hades in more detail, and Sigrid was left alone with the team.

"So how are you related to Wonder Woman? Are you an Amazon?" Robin asked, flipping his folder closed.

"I believe that it would be polite to introduce ourselves before we start to pester her with questions." Kalder stated, saving Sigrid from answering the awkward question. "I am Kaldur'ahm, nice to meet you Sigrid."

"Sorry, I'm Robin."

"Artemis."

"Name's Kid Flash, beautiful." He said with a smile and a wink, making Sigrid flush a pinker hue as Artemis glared daggers at him, knowing that her boyfriend was only joking.

"I'm Megan, it's nice to meet you!"

"Superboy or Conner," he stated simply.

"It is nice… to meet you all… also." Sigrid said quietly, nervously twisting her pentacle ring and looking at the floor, her arm purposefully hiding the one hanging around her neck, suddenly regretting the decision to wear the symbol of her religion in front of strangers.

"You don't have to be so anxious you know," M'gann said, trying to console her and floating over with a cookie.

"Kiitokset." Sigrid murmured, taking the cookie before going rigid, "I-I-I mean, thanks."

"English isn't your first language is it?" Robin chuckled, "It's fine, it's not mine either."

His teammates minus Wally looked at him curiously.

"What was your first language?" Artemis asked.

"Romani."

"Huh."

"What languages do you know?" Robin asked Sigrid.

"My first were Soumi, er, F-Finnish, sorry…"

"You have no need to feel ashamed when you are still learning." Kaldur told her, and she took a deep breath.

"My first two were Finnish and… Swedish, then I learned German and English. My mom talked to me in English when I was still learning my first two, but I didn't start, really learning, until two, years ago."

"Where were you born?" Wally asked, amazed.

"Kotka, Finland, not far from the capitol."

"What are you doing in America then?"

"My grandparents didn't want me, and I can't stay with my father, so he trusted his niece and the team with me." She was back to fiddling with her ring.

"I thought you mentioned you had a mother, what happened to her?" Conner asked.

Robin noticed the shift immediately, but it helped that he had already assumed the worst case scenario. He stood up. Her hands froze in place, and her shoulders tensed. She clenched her jaw and pushed her hands harder together to try and stop them from shaking.

"I-i-is there a-a bathroom?"

"Yeah, it's down the hall, I'll show you." He said quietly, leading her away, "There's a lot of doors in this place so it's pretty easy to get lost." Robin hoped he could manage to distract her from whatever had happened to her mom with idle chit chat but it didn't seem to be helping so he walked faster.

She closed the door and almost as soon he heard the clink of the toilet seat going up he heard her retching before the cookie M'gann had given her and then probably lunch had vacated the premises.

She washed her hands for a long time.

"You okay?" Robin asked as they made their way back to the rec room. He knew it was a stupid question from experience but it still felt nice knowing that someone cared enough to ask, so he asked it anyway.

"No." Sigrid replied bluntly.

" _At least she's honest,"_ he thought to himself.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

A few steps echoed in the silence.

"Black Canary will probably ask. It's her role to do therapy sessions." When Sigrid looked at him with wide, seemingly panicked eyes he continued hurriedly, "She won't make you talk about anything you really don't want to though," she let out a deep breath, "but sometimes it's best if you do anyway."

"I don't want to."

"I'm sure she'll say it's fine then."

"Are you sure?"

"Well, no, I don't really know your situation, but she isn't the type to make people talk, so you being unable to avoid talking about it is unlikely."

"Okay."

"Do you want to take a detour? I can show you around the cave for a bit before we get back to the others, since you'll be living here and everything." Robin asked suddenly, and stopped walking.

"Would they not notice us being gone too long?"

"They probably will, but it's fine."

"...Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"What?"

"It's like yes."

"Oh…?"

"In this context it meant yes."

"Oh."

"Negative can also be no."

"All of these english phrases that make no sense translated literally will be the death of me." Sigrid exclaimed, pressing her palms to her eyes in frustration, and Robin snickered. After a few seconds the two teenagers were just standing in the hallway laughing together. When it died down Sigrid had tears in her eyes. She hadn't laughed in a long time. Sigrid hugged Robin from behind.

"Thanks," she whispered.

The team stared at Conner shortly after Robin and Sigrid had left.

"What?" he asked.

"I believe her mother is dead Conner." Kaldur stated.

"Oh."

"Why did Robin go to the bathroom with her, it isn't even hard to find. It has a sign and everything." Conner then asked, since everyone seemed to have explanations today.

"He's used to it." Wally answered, then, realizing that that was a bit too telling, he elaborated in the wrong direction, "He works almost full time in Gotham, he's dealt with traumatized people before."

"What do you think happened?" M'gann asked.

"Something deadly?" Artemis replied, getting her a couple of glares she didn't notice as she worked through answering questions about data from yesterday's chemistry lab.

"So how do you think she's Wonder Woman's cousin? Like is it on her mom's side?" Wally asked.

"Whose mothers side?" Kaldur asked.

"Wonder Woman's."

"I do not believe she had any aunts."

"So it would have to be an Olympian then right?"

"Yes."

"Well it wouldn't be Zeus because then they'd be sisters or something," Artemis piped in, "and it can't be like, a child of Zeus like because they would be… something weird."

"So it would have to be one of the other five." Wally concluded.

"Yeah. We can scratch off Hera because she doesn't cheat, unlike her husband, and we can scratch off Hestia because she's one of the virgin goddesses. That leaves Poseidon, Demeter or Hades."

"Wow Arty, you really payed attention in Freshman English didn't you?" Wally joked.

"Shut up Baywatch. Anyway, Hades seems pretty unlikely since he doesn't leave the Underworld ever, and she doesn't look anything like Demeter. She could be a daughter of Poseidon."

"Wait, so who is he?" Conner asked.

"Poseidon is the supreme ruler of the Oceans and all of its life. He also controlled sea based disasters and can cause earthquakes." Artemis explained.

"Encyclopedia Art over here." Wally joked again as Conner nodded in understanding.

"Well _excuuuuuse me_ for being knowledgeable about the mythic culture the goddess I'm literally _named after_ is from."

"Wait your named after a goddess?" Conner asked.

"Yeah," Wally started, cutting off the girl in question as she opened her mouth to answer, "Artemis, daughter of Zeus, Goddess of the Moon and the Hunt."

"She has her own group of exclusively female hunters she works with because she's another one of the goddesses that never wanted to marry and/or have kids." Artemis added, shooting a glare at the speedster.

"Even though she's the goddess of childbirth." Wally joked.

"She's a like midwife Baywatch you don't have to have gone through it yourself in order to be one of those."

He shrugged.

"Where are Robin and Sigrin? It's been far longer than just a bathroom break…" M'gann noted.

"He's probably socializing with the new girl without us." Wally huffed in a kidding manner.

"Watch your back, she might replace you in status as his best friend." Connor teased, and Wally looked at him in surprise.

 _Recognised, Zatanna, A03._

"Look who it is, come to join the welcome party?" Artemis asked the girl who just materialized in civies with a duffle bag over her shoulder.

"Welcome party?" Zatanna questioned, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah," Wally confirmed, "Where were you anyway?"

"Sleepover with some school friends, and who are we welcoming? Did we get a new teammate?"

"We don't know if she is exactly going to be on the team as of yet, but she is going to be living here with you, M'gann and Conner from now on." Kaldur told, "Her name is Sigrid."

Just then Sigrid and Robin walked back into the rec room.

"Hey Zee, back already?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, why? Didn't you miss me?" His girlfriend teased, pecking him on the lips in greeting.

" 'Course I missed you," he blushed, "Just didn't expect you back before dinner when you have time to hang out with your other group of friends."

"Oh please, I can only listen to Abigail rant about the ludicrousy of love triangles in young adult literature for so long."

Robin snorted, and Zatanna continued, quoting her friend, "'It's the literal apocalypse, as far as Maslow's Hierarchy of needs is concerned they can't even afford to be worrying about personal relationships when the bottom tier of basic human needs isn't even stable! Besides! They could totally both date her! It's the freaking _apocalypse_! The only people who are around to judge have better shit to worry about!'" They were both laughing, the team looking on in mixed confusion and amusement, "It went on _forever._ Like she totally has a point but _still_."

"I assume you had fun then?"

"It was great. We made a blanket fort in the living room and Naomi kicked everyone's butts at chess as usual. Then we sat on the roof and watched the sun rise because we were all too tired to do anything else but too sugar high still to fall asleep."

"What did you eat?"

Zatarra grimaced.

"Collectively we finished a large stuffed pizza, a gallon bucket thing of rainbow sherbert, and a lot of assorted tiny chocolate bars."

"Dude."

"I know."

"And Ashton convinced you to let her tattoo you as well?" Robin asked, looking down as the intricate design of flowering vines peaking out from under his girlfriend's long sleeves.

"Oh, yeah, that happened too, don't worry it's washable marker," she said, rolling it up to show an extremely detailed garden design encircling her entire arm. "She used sharpie for Abigail's and sealed it with hairspray and baby powder but she's the one who actually _wants_ tattoo's when she's older so…"

Robin chuckled.

"So, you're Sigrid?" Zatanna asked, turning to the new girl and looking at her curiously.

"Yes, I am."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Zatanna Zatara. Who brought you here?"

"Wonder Woman. We are cousins."

Zatanna frowned slightly.

"Are you a sorceress?" She asked suddenly.

"Um… I am not sure I am skilled enough to have that title, but I can enchant things, why?" Sigrid asked nervously.

"You have wards… on everything." Zatanna stated, eyeing Sigrid's jewelry.

"Oh, yeah, my mom was a bit overprotective…" she blushed, running a hand through her hair and unsettling her bangs.

"What does that first necklace do? It has an enchantment instead of a ward."

"Oh… umm… it just…." Her hand went quickly to the axe pendant, and Zatanna raised her eyebrows, the rest of the team now also wondering what it did. "It's… probably best… if I just showed you."

Sigrid unclasped the necklace and let the pendant slide down the chain to the clasp. When it reached it it glowed and expanded until it was a wicked sharp, ink black hand axe with details in silver. The room seemed to grow chilly at the sight of it.

"My father gave it to me."

"Who's your father?" Robin asked, surprised.

"Poseidon, right?" Conner interjected when Sigrid froze with wide eyes. She spun around to look at him, betrayal on her face. "What?" He asked.

"What do you mean, 'Poseidon, right?'?" She asked defensively.

"We figured it out when you and Robin left. Did we get it wrong?"

"We cancelled out Olympian until it was either Demeter or Poseidon, since you and Wonder Woman are cousins. Poseidon came out on top." Artemis explained to the stoney faced girl.

"Wait, Poseidon? Really?" Robin asked, bewildered, "Isn't he the sea god?"

"Yes, he is." Sigrid retorted icily with a bat family esque glare.

"So, we were correct with our assumption?" M'gann asked. Sigrid sighed and closed her eyes, turning towards the hallway.

"I do not take kindly to people talking about me behind my back." She said monotonously, walking away from them.

"We did not intend it that way." Kaldur spoke, hoping to diffuse the situation, but she continued walking, leaving the team and the rec room behind.

"Poseidon? Are you sure?" Robin asked the team.

"Well, she didn't deny it." Artemis countered.

"We should probably stop talking about her behind her back guys, she's already upset with us for the first time." Wally put in, and Artemis nodded.

Before the conversation could continue, the adults adjourned their meeting and joined the team in the rec room to tell them what had been decided.

"Where is Sigrid?" Wonder Woman asked, looking around the expansive room for her charge.

"She stormed off." Conner stated.

"Why?" She asked sternly.

The team exchanged nervous glances with one another under the aggressive gaze of the amazonian.

"A few of us tried to guess who her second parent was in order for her to be related to you while Robin was showing her where the bathroom was," Artemis confessed before Kaldur, who hadn't been a part of the conversation, said anything, "She didn't like that we had been talking about her, and left."

"She did not tell you herself?" Black Canary asked.

"She seemed to avoid it." Robin said, and she nodded in concern.

"Who did you guess?" Asked Superman, curious.

"They guessed Poseidon, but Sigrid neither confirmed nor denied the assumption." Kaldur informed, "Did they guess correctly?"

"If Sigrid does not wish to disclose her heritage, I will not do it for her." Wonder Woman said sternly. "Now I suggest that you all find and apologies to her."

"I'll check the security to see if she's left the cave or not." Robin said, activating his wrist computer. "She left through the front door. We should be able to catch up to her."

"Let us go then." Kaldur responded, and the team got up to chase after her.

By the time they got out of the cave she was standing at the edge of a grassy cliff over the water, looking out onto the ocean.

"Sigrid, I'm sorry we were talking about you and tried to guess who your father was, it was none of our business and we shouldn't have done it." Artemis said, walking up behind her.

Sigrid didn't turn around until half a minute later, frantically pushing Artemis away from the cliff as a large wave sprayed up above the rocks. Artemis landed three feet away, and Sigrid spun back around, hand axe flashing dangerously.

"Get away," she growled to the team menacingly, squaring herself between the team and the edge of a cliff.

"Hey, what's your problem?" Wally shouted, helping his girlfriend to her feet, "We're apologising!"

Just then a creature, almost like a giraffe if giraffes were bigger and covered in grey green scales and had teeth like knives that dripped acidic poison from six, deadly heads, clearly nothing like real regular giraffes, rose from the sea. The team stepped back, startled, but Sigrid readied her weapon.

"You need to go, NOW!" She yelled, hitting one head away with the flat of her blades when it lunged, it's drool eating away the grass where it landed into a chemical steam.

"We are not leaving you to fight this alone." Kaldur responded, activating his water-bearers.

"Wally, go back to the cave and get the adults and my bow, and ask if there's a flamethrower." Artemis told her boyfriend, and he was gone, nothing but dust trailing after him as she got into a defensive stance, prepared to dodge whatever she had to until she was armed, Robin doing the same.

"No!" Sigrid screamed, a red light pulsing from her and knocking them all back, their shadows bending the wrong ways and around them until they were cocooned and trapped in steel hard blackness. Before long the adults were running to the cliff, shock evident. Sigrid's hand axe deflected another lunging head, and she wished she had a polearm. The weapon responded in kind to her need, glowing red as it unfolded from itself as though it was segmented, plates of cold black metal locking back into place until she held a halberd. Dodging several striking heads, she took notice of the adults coming her way and became angry. They were going to get themselves killed because of her if she didn't get rid of this monster before they got to the cliff. How dare it attack her, endanger the people she had only just met, endanger the only possibility of family and a semi normal existence she had left. The anger coursed through her like the acid dripping from the maws of the six headed beast, and she leaped at one, landing on it's head and bringing the axe down into the skull of the snake, it's skin boiled under the black flames emanating from her down to the blade. The six heads shrieked and writhed as the burning blackness radiated throughout it's body, even after Sigrid had wrenched her weapon from it and jumped away. It slowly disintegrated until it fell back into the ocean, still burning, even under water, until not a scrap of flesh or bone remained. The adults didn't reach Sigrid or the obsidian-esque crystals Wally was trying to free the team from until the monster was gone. When Batman, Black Canary and Superman looked at Wonder Woman, all they saw on her face was shock and fear before she rushed over to the girl she had been trusted with as she collapsed. As Wonder Woman picked her up the hardened shadows melted, and went back to their proper places behind the people who cast them.

"What was that?" Batman asked after looking to make sure Robin and the team were alright.

"She holds more power than I suspected." She whispered, creases of worry on her forehead.

"What does that mean?" Black Canary questioned.

"It means she will face more hardship by her heritage than most who are like the two of us, and we will need to protect her from as much of it possible."


	3. Chapter 3

"So, what was that she did?" Robin asked, the team once again assembled in the rec room while Black Canary and Wonder Woman were in the med bay with Sigrid to make sure her vitals were stable and that she had not sustained any injuries during the fight.

"We don't know. We were hoping the six of you could give us answers on that." His mentor answered.

"The attack happened when Artemis apologized for what happened. When we did not run from the Hydra as Sigrid told us to, she knocked us back somehow, and encased us in something." Kaldur relayed, "I for one could not see out to what was going on until it was gone and everything had finished."

"That 'something' you were encased in," Wonder Woman said as she entered the room with Black Canary, "was your own shadow. She manipulated them into shields to protect you all, it seems. They dissolved and returned to normal when she became unconscious from the exertion."

"Will she be alright?" M'gann asked, concern clear on her face as any other emotion.

"We're sure she'll be fine." Black Canary assured, and the Martian relaxed.

"Yeah, but how was she able to do that? Control shadows I mean?" Artemis asked.

"Demigods inherit powers from their parents." Wonder Woman explained, "My own power of flight comes from my father Zeus. Sigrid's ability to control shadows to an extent is due to her own father's abilities as well."

"And what about that other thing? It disintegrated that monster like it was nothing!" Superman exclaimed, and Wonder Woman sighed.

"That, was black hell fire." She paused as the team looked at one another, bewildered, "It painfully destroys whatever or whoever is in its path, and is even capable of inflicting damage to spirits and one's soul if the user is experienced or exceptionally careless. We are fortunate that it died out when she no longer had the energy to sustain it. If it had continued with her not conscious to control it we would have had a city wide disaster on our hands in minutes."

"Wait wait wait, so who would her parent have to be in order for _those_ to be her powers? That's just plain dangerous!" Wally cried out, earning him a sharp glare.

"Once again, she has good reason to not wish to tell you her heritage, and whether you figure it out or not doesn't matter. She is here because she needs help and safety, and that is what I have promised. I expect only the best from the six of you. Do not ask about her past or her family unless she is willing to give the information. We ourselves are not sure what she has been through, and she is not going to open up about it until she is comfortable. Understood?"

She was answered with a chorus of yesses, and nodded.

"She will be in the room between M'gann and Conner once she is out of the infirmary." With that, Wonder Woman picked up Sigrid's luggage and left, taking them to the girl's new room. The other three adults said their goodbyes and parted to places either within the cave or through the zeta tubes, and the team was left alone again.

"Well, summer break is going to be interesting." Wally commented, putting an arm around his girlfriend's shoulder, glad that she wasn't trapped in her own shadow anymore.

"Yeah, once it gets here." she replied, leaning her head into his neck as the others, minus Kaldur who did not go to school, nodded in agreement.

"So what will we do when she wakes up?" M'gann asked.

"Congratulate her on defeating the monster?" Conner suggested.

"Perhaps we should thank her for shielding us all. Even if we would have been able to help her, she only wished to defend us." Kaldur commented.

"It's the thought that counts." Robin added, trying to lighten the serious mood left behind by the adults.

"Indeed." Kaldur agreed.

Ten minutes later Sigrid walked in, gauze pads taped to her knees, and one on her arm.

"Hey." Robin greeted casually."

"Hi."

"You okay?"

"I am fine." She said briskly, eyes traveling around to them all. He could tell she was checking them all for injuries.

"So a sea monster, huh?" Wally asked, "You deal with that kind of thing often?"

"Often enough" she said vaguely.

Then Black Canary entered the room.

"Sigrid, I'm glad to see you're alright. Could you come with me please? I'd like to talk to you."

Sigrid made eye contact with Robin again, and after him giving her a barely noticeable nod, she sighed and followed the woman to the waterfall room, where all her sessions were held. The two sat across from one another in the green chairs, Black Canary's face soft, and Sigrid's stone.

"How much do you know about your family?" Black Canary asked, and Sigrid sighed again, bouncing her right leg.

"My father is Hades, Lord of the Dead. My mother is Mirja Mustonen. My... grandparents are the Titans Rhea and Cronos, and the... mortals Hilja and Conrí Mustonen. My only extended family is on my father's side. My half sister by him is Melinoë, and my... adopted sister, daughter of his wife Persephone, is Makaria. They are both goddesses. I have no other siblings."

"What's your relationship with them?"

"Who?"

"Any of them."

"Well, I don't know Rhea, but dad says nothing but good things about her, and Cronos is in bits in Tartarus where he belongs so I don't know him. Melinoë is… odd, but both her and Makaria don't like me much… because I'm only here because dad cheated on their mom. We all still talk though."

"What about your other grandparents?"

"They aren't family."

Black Canary raised her eyebrows at the blunt statement.

"So you consider half sisters who don't like the circumstances of your birth family but not your mother's parents?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"They thought Mirja was a disappointment… and she avoided them as much as possible. I met them after I was born, which was the first time she had seen them in 14 years… and then again when I was ten and we all met for a weekend… because my grandmother didn't think it was fair for Mirja to keep me from her like that… And then last week. They don't want me around either anyway."

"Why do you call your mother by her first name?"

"That's what all the adults called her."

"But you call your father 'dad', not Hades."

"She always called him my dad."

"Did she tell you about who he was?"

"Yeah."

"Has that ever made you feel alienated from other kids?"

"I don't understand."

"Has that made you feel… distanced, or isolated from other people your age."

Sigrid shrugged.

"I don't really talk... to people my age."

"Why not?"

She shrugged again, and looked at the floor, growing uncomfortable.

"I was… homeschooled… until I was eleven… because we moved around alot."

"Did you not have many friends?"

"Some."

"What are their names?"

"Mathis was nice. He had to move though… after my first year."

"Are there any people you miss from school now?"

"Kiarra, Matthieu... Sophia was alright."

"Do you like school?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"It takes me too long to do things and it annoys everyone."

"What kind of things?"

"Um… I'm not good with reading… or concentration."

"What's your best class?"

"Gym… or art."

"Are you involved in sports?"

Sigrid nodded.

"I've swam competitively since I was little, and I did archery, and I did gymnastics, and I did Longsword fighting as a sport."

"Longsword fighting?"

"Historical European Martial Arts. I worked with daggers and the basic… wrestling moves they teach you at the beginning also… but what I trained with most was the longsword… I did learn some polearms which is nice… with the whole halberd thing"

"Your mom really wanted you to know how to fight, didn't she?"

"Things like what happened earlier were not exactly uncommon, even before she had me to worry about."

"Do you want to talk about what happened to her?"

Sigrid's face paled to an extent that most would not believe possible and Black Canary backpedaled with haste.

"You don't have to if you don't want to of course-." But the damage was already done.

Sigrid quickly left the room, and Black Canary followed her.

"Sigrid please, we'll talk about something else."

"Do you know where my room is?"

"Yeah, of course. I'll take you."

They walked to the door, and when Sigrid opened it she stopped suddenly, making Black Canary look over the girl's head to see what was wrong. She looked at what she could see from the doorway in surprise. It didn't look like the regular rooms. Someone had changed the furniture, and painted the walls a cheery pastel yellow. It looked lived in and personal, with knick knacks and cd's on a large wooden bookshelf, a colorful floral quilted comforter on the four-poster bed, a low table with a cloth, candles, bowls, and other objects Black Canary couldn't name arranged on top of it carefully, and many other things. The air seemed to buzz with energy when they walked in. On the bedside table was a note written in bold, spaced out, capital letters, underlined, seemingly for even more emphasis. Sigrid picked it up and read it.

 **, , E. L.**

 **E,**

 **R**

"Does he always write like that?" Black Canary asked.

"No," Sigrid responded, grinning, "He just knows it's easier for me to read when it's like this."

Black Canary took another look around the room. All of the furniture was a dark wood, the red tone of the stain going well with the yellow of the walls. Across from the bed that was on the right wall from the door was a desk with drawers, flanked by two bookshelves filled with CD cases, jars of shells, smooth grey stones, dried herbs, scraps of ribbons and fabric, and polished crystals. Above the desk was a cork board with twine on the top of it. Clipped to the twine with pastel painted clothes pins were photographs. A boy with brown hair in a red hoodie and jeans balanced on a rock at the edge of a creek; the picture taken from the opposite side of the water. The same boy hanging from the tree branch of a large oak with a blonde haired girl in a green long sleeved sweater sitting on the branch across from his, leaning against the trunk. Sigrid, looking a couple years younger, smiling with braced teeth between the girl and boy from the previous picture, they all have wildflowers in their hair. The boy smiling wide, outside in the fall; he had what looked like an all black, extra padded fencing mask tucked under his left arm, a steel broadsword casually held up leaning flat side against his heavily padded shoulder. Around his neck is a medal. The next picture is of Sigrid and a woman with eyes like the ocean and hair the gold of the setting sun. They're sitting on a bench under a flowering dogwood tree, smiling. Sigrid looks older than in the last picture she was in, but it still doesn't seem recent. The following photograph looks to be from the same time, of her and a brown haired, chestnut eyed girl in a classroom. The other girl's side swept bangs are dyed a royal blue, and she and Sigrid are wearing matching necklaces. The next picture features her as well. She's on a pool deck, hair in a wet braid. She's tan with a thick, athletic build compared to Sigrid's pale, bony athletic build. They stand next to one another, Sigrid's arm around the girl's waist and the girl's arm around her shoulder, Sigrid's head coming only up to the girl's chin. They wear matching black swimsuits with thick royal blue straps, both of them holding blue caps and a pair of goggles. The last picture is of the two of them again in what looks like a grassy schoolyard. The girl is carrying Sigrid on her back. They're both mid laughter, but the picture is crisp and without any blur. Pinned to the cork board are a few things, among which is a small piece of paper with a metal trash can drawn on it in pencil. Underneath it are the words "I drew you" in english, with a winking smiley face next to them. In the corner of the page it says "from Laura, Sept. 2010 3".

On the desk is a jar of colored pens, a sketch book, what looks like it may be a journal, and a laptop. Next to the jar of pencils are three framed photographs. One is of Sigrid on a couch, held in between the gold haired woman and a man with long curly black hair and a crisp lined beard. It looks like a family portrait. The picture next to that is of Sigrid, the two girls, and a black haired boy that isn't in any of the pictures from the same time the first three hanging pictures were taken. They all sit on the steps leading up to someone's house, and it seems to be fall. The last picture is of the brown haired girl, and looks like one of the most recent. She's sitting in a patch of sun in a field of wildflowers wearing jean shorts and a flowy cotton blouse. Her hair is braided with flowers into complex knots, and the light shines off of her smiling face.

Pulling her eyes away from the pictures Black Canary looks at the rest of the room. Next to the bed, in the opposite side of where the nightstand is, is a dresser with a mirror over it, and a large wardrobe, where Sigrid is standing now. On the other side of the dresser was a low table with a white cloth, and incense burner, and several other things. On the other side of the bed next to the nightstand is a wooden rocking chair with a blue blanket folded over the top of it, and a plastic box next to it. On the nightstand is a lamp, a digital alarm clock, and empty candle holder, and a white vase of dried but still fragrant lavender. On the wall across from the door was a window, and under it was a small end table with what looked like herbs in little pots. One was a small rosemary bush, another was basil, she also recognised mint and oregano. The silvery plant she didn't recognise. A second end table held a larger pot of just lavender.

When she heard the wardrobe door be opened Black Canary turned to see that there were three swords hanging on the inside of the door, a wooden one, a synthetic one, and a true steel one, though that one had a dull edge and was currently sheathed. There was also a wooden pole with a rubber polehammer head. Sigrid noticed Black Canary staring and grinned.

"I told you I did European martial arts."

"Yeah, you did."

She could also see the shape of a guitar case behind the sparring gear hanging in the right side of the wardrobe.

"Do you play an instrument?" She asked, nodding towards the case.

"Yes, Acoustic guitar."

"How long have you played?"

"Four years."

"Do you have any other hobbies?"

"I, uh… I knit… and do art"

"Cool. How long have you been knitting?"

"Two years. I made that blanket." She said, pointing to the blanket on the rocking chair.

"You like a lot of physical activities?"

"Yeah."

"Who are the people in the photographs?" Black Canary asked after a moment of silence where Sigrid closed the door of the wardrobe and she walked back over to the desk. Sigrid walked to her and pointed to people.

"That's Matthieu in the red...sweater, and that's him and Kiarra in the tree, and then the three of us together. We were eleven. That's Matthieu again, he won a competition in class. That's me and Mirja, I was 12." She pauses at the girl with the blue fringe. "That's Laura. We're thirteen in that last one."

"You didn't mention her like you did Kiarra and Matthieu. Are you still friends?"

"That one's dad and me and Mirja," Sigrid continued, quickly avoiding the question and pointing at the framed family picture. "And the black haired boy in this one is Mathis. We took that one before he moved at the end of the school year." Black Canary decided to not pursue the issue.

"Well, it was nice getting to know you Sigrid." She said instead, "Do you want to go back and be with the team?"

"Y-yeah, hold on," Sigrid said, going to the plastic box by the rocking chair and taking out a ball of yarn attached to the makings of a hopeful green sock. "I like having something to do with my hands…"

Black Canary grinned, and Sigrid seemed to relax at that.

Maybe her second meeting with the team would go better than the first.


	4. Chapter 4

**Quick author's note here I just wanted to thank AlphaPanther and the Guest who both left very nice encouraging comments on the last two chapters as well as the eight people who are following my story! To be honest I have a very vague idea of where the plot of this is going and how Sigrid's backstory is going to actually come out in the open, but she's actually a re-write of a group RP OC I've had for the past three years, so at least she's developed for a while beforehand! I know the conflict is going to be based on Greek Mythology, but the concept I have is a bit spindly to say the least, so the time between updates might increase because of that... Other than these things if there are questions you guys have about her and some of the logistics of the story and her character that aren't clearly explained (unless they're spoilers to her backstory) PLEASE ask them! I will tie loopholes via responses! Ask anything! If it is something connected to backstory shenanigans I'll say ;). (Also if you guys want to correct my characterization of some characters please do I've never written them before and it would help)**

Everyone was back to the positions they had been in before, three in the kitchen, three now on the couches with Zatanna, doing homework, when Sigrid joined them again.

"How was your talk with Black Canary?" Robin asked when she sat down on the couch with them.

"It was fine. She showed me where my bedroom was." She replied, starting a new row and changing the position of the plastic stitch marker so that it was in the new loop she had just made.

"What do you think?"

"My dad decided to move everything here... from my old room, so I don't know what it's supposed to look like." She chuckled.

"That's thoughtful of him." Artemis commented.

"Yes."

"What's he like?" She asked, stalling her pencil.

"He is nice. Really hard working, but… he tries to be at dinner… and we would talk whenever he went out with Mirja...when I was smaller… because he'd come early… on purpose. He is good at listening, even if… he isn't familiar with... what I'm talking about."

"Sounds like a good dad."

Sigrid nodded.

"What about your parents?"

"My dad's an assassin with the League of Shadows, and my mom's retired from the same line of work."

"Oh."

The only sounds left in the room were quiet conversations coming from the kitchen, the scratching of pencils on paper, and the soft clicking of Sigrid's wooden needles. Eventually it became late, and the non-residents left, leaving Sigrid to her first night at the cave.

Conner woke to a scream.

M'gann woke to pure terror.

The couple found themselves standing outside of their new house mate's room, unsure whether or not it was really their place to go in.

After he heard another strangled cry, and she felt another wave of panic, they opened the door and rushed to either sides of the bed.

"Sigrid, wake up!" M'gann pleaded, shaking the girl's shoulder. She bolted awake, her forehead knocking into Conner's face with how quickly she sat up. Sigrid sniffed, the two both rubbing at the places of impact, and she tried to hide the fact that she was crying.

"Why are you here?" She asked, wiping at her eyes.

"You woke us up." Conner replied, and she looked at him surprised.

"How?"

"I heard you scream."

"I could feel that you were afraid."

Sigrid sighed heavily in annoyance.

"Are you alright?" M'gann asked, "Do you want to talk to Black Canary?"

"I'm fine. There is no need to bother her at this hour." She responded, glancing at the clock that showed 4:23 in bright red numbers.

"Do you want to talk about it with us?"

"I don't need to talk about anything," she retorted sternly.

"But you screamed." Conner said with a frown.

"It's fine."

"Are you sure?" M'gann asked, not willing to put down the issue so easily when she could feel the turmoil of fear, regret and anger rolling off of the girl in waves.

"It's fine." Sigrid reiterated sternly, "The two of you should go back to bed."

"If you want to talk about it, you can just come to my room." The Martian said with concern in her voice, lingering in the doorway before she and her boyfriend left the demigod to herself.

When they were in their separate rooms, she initiated a psychic link between the two of them.

" _I'm worried about her, Conner."_

" _Did you see something by accident?"_

" _No, but,"_ she sighed, " _she's afraid, and I think she feels like whatever happened was her fault. I don't know, there was so much at once…"_

" _Hold on, I don't think she's going back to sleep."_

" _What do you mean?"_

" _I can hear her moving around."_ A pause.  " _She left her room."_

" _Wait, why would she do that?"_

" _I don't know, maybe we should follow her."_

" _Well, I could just-"_

" _No."_

" _Like following her is that much better?"_

" _I think it's definitely easier to explain, at the very least. Come on, she won't notice us at the distance she's at now."_

M'gann sighed and exited her room, following her boyfriend quietly through the halls of the cave until they were near the gym.

" _Early morning workout?"_ She suggested, and he shook his head. They followed her until they were in the doorway to the pool deck.

" _Okay, I've heard that the swim team practices early but I don't think it's as bad as four thirty in the morning early."_ She half-joked as they watched Sigrid dive gracefully off of the starting block, breaking out into butterfly when she surfaced about halfway down the pool.

" _I guess you'd know more about that than I would."_

" _Cheer team goes to everything!"_

" _What's she doing?"_ He asked when, after four laps, Sigrid transitioned to backstroke.

" _Umm… I think it's the one event where they do all four strokes, I don't remember what it was called. Medley maybe? I think that was when there's more than one person swimming though. So much happens during meets it's hard to remember what everything is called. It might have been IM? I can't think of anything else IM would be…."_

" _Why don't you just ask her later?"_

" _I don't think she'd like us following her Conner. We should probably go"_

" _Alright. As long as we know where she is."_

At seven thirty in the morning Conner and M'gann woke and went into the kitchen for breakfast, where they found Sigrid, sitting at the island with a mug of coffee and a portable CD player. When she took off her headphones and passed Conner to refill her mug he could smell coconut from her waist length cloud of wavy, still drying hair.

"Good morning." She said, not looking at either of them.

"Good morning," M'gann replied. The following silence was tense before Sigrid broke it again.

"I know you both followed me."

"Hmm?" M'gann asked innocently, opening the fridge.

"I saw you both," the girl stated, "You cannot hide from me just because you are both in shadows."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Conner asked, "Do you have night vision or something?"

"Shadows conceal nothing from me."

With that cryptic statement, she took her mug and her CD player and left the room.

It was funny to her that the safe place Diana sent her to was underground. The stone under the walls hummed with protectiveness, knowing she was their daughter. She was safe underground, where her jealous uncles and who knows what else had no say. Where shadows hid her but hid nothing from her.

She opened her wardrobe fully. In it was the evidence of all of her hobbies. Knitting, wood carving (though she didn't want to look at that box right now, with its symbols and place for ash), her guitar, her paints, the swords hanging from the inside of the door, everything she liked doing. She felt no motivation to do any of it, but she knew she still had to practice. She reached past the clothing hanging in the back, hand stalling at a black velvet dress before she grabbed the padded armor necessary for what she was planning. Once she was suited up she took her steel longsword and a coal black figurine with her to the training room, where she spoke a command and watched the figure expand to a full sized opponent. It stood at the ready, also wielding a longsword, waiting for her to make the first move.

She sparred with it, countering each of it's moves as it learned from her, the sound of clashing metal eventually attracting the residents as well as Red Tornado, who had just come back from a solo mission. They watched her for several minutes, surprised at the fast paced movement and startled when two fighters began to use the half swording method; Sigrid bringing down the animated opponent by hooking it behind the neck with the guard several times before ending the session by getting behind it and pulling it backwards over her left thigh to the ground.

With that she looked at the people watching from the doorway and took off the protective headgear, showing her red face.

"Is watching the new person train part of initiation or something because this is becoming strange."

"You are quite skilled, Sigrid." Red Tornado stated.

"Thanks." she replied, the padded marionette like figure shrinking back down into her hand.

"I am Red Tornado, the team's caretaker. I apologise for not being here for your arrival."

"It's fine" She casually held the sword over her shoulder and walked back to her room where she put everything away and went to shower again, chastising herself for not thinking that aspect of training through before starting.

While Sigrid quickly showered Black Canary entered the cave, coming early to their scheduled training.

"Hey guys." she greeted, a chorus of hello's replying. "How'd everyone sleep?"

"Well" Zatanna replied, while M'gann and Conner exchanged looks.

"Did something happen? Conner? M'gann?"

"Well… we woke up Sigrid from a nightmare around four thirty, but she refused to talk about it." M'gann said.

"I think she just stayed up after that." Conner added, deciding not to tell of how they had followed her to the pool. Black Canary nodded solemnly.

Soon Robin, Artemis, Wally, and Kaldur showed up for training, and Black Canary invited Sigrid to join them or watch if she felt like it. She stood in the doorway of the training room and watched everyone practice their hand to hand combat, not engaging, just observing, despite Black Canary's attempts to get her to join them all.

"I already practiced today." was all she said, dismissing the invitation.

"Did you sleep well, Sigrid?" she asked when everyone was in the rec room, snacking and talking about summer plans.

"Yes." was her terse reply, clearly not willing to elaborate on anything.

Black Canary again nodded, and decided to drop the subject, leaving the team to try and get her to open up more as she left the teenagers in the room alone.

"We should go to the beach." Robin said suddenly.

"After what happened yesterday? Do you even have a swimsuit on you?" Artemis asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It'll be a bonding activity, besides, we don't have to actually go into the water. What do you think Sigrid? Sound like a good idea?"

"Sure." The girl replied, hiding her concern under a steel expression of light indifference.

Robin looked around at the others expectantly, and slowly they all nodded in agreement.

"We should tell Red Tornado of our plans before before we go out." Kaldur stated.

"Good idea, I'll get the sunscreen and towels." The boy rushed off

"I'll make a bag of snacks!" M'gann said, clapping her hands together and rushing to the kitchen.

Within half an hour they were at the beach at the base of the mountain with a picnic lunch assembled and other assorted beach-going paraphernalia. Sigrid was back in her swimsuit, covered by a floaty cream orange knee-length sundress with her hair in a milkmaid braid to keep it out of the way. Artemis wore a blue tank top and black pair of running shorts loaned to her by Zatanna, who was in a white one piece swimsuit. The girl's were all compacting sand into buckets to make a sand castle, while Sigrid wandered the shore and into the shallows of the water to look for shells and stones to decorate it with. The boys were in two teams, competing amongst themselves to make their own. Wally and Kaldur worked a few yards away from Robin and Conner, the four of them enjoying the good-natured competition. After about an hour they braked for an early lunch, sitting on towels under umbrellas. Once they deemed the castles completed, the girls, at Sigrid and Artemis's suggestion, voted that _their_ castle was far better than either of the boys' castles, and thus _they_ won instead. After this they all played volleyball until having to go back inside before the sunscreen wore off and left the paler three team members with peeling skin.

It was a good sunday to kick off the last week of school.


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm publishing this at 12 pm within like 5-6 hours of finishing and publishing chapter four because I wrote it in about 5 hours it's short but it's done and I need to go to bed have fun reading the hints of how my child has suffered.**

She was falling backwards, the landing of the fourth floor stairwell above her. A brown haired girl's scream rang in her ears, her hand reaching out to her falling companion before the grey and flickering person behind her kicked her forward over the rail. Pain shot up M'gann's back and she could taste the memory of blood in her mouth as she saw the other girl falling towards her, terrified.

She bolted awake. Conner's hand was on her shoulder, and he had a look of concern etched on his handsome face.

"Are you alright?" he asked as she wiped her eyes.

"We need to wake up Sigrid." she said in a choked whisper.

He nodded in understanding and they both went to the other girl's room to find her twisted in bedsheets, distress plain to see. They shook her awake, and she gasped, sitting up with tears streaking her face.

"Sigrid, are you alright?" Conner asked, M'gann still too shaken up to have a steady voice, but she didn't look at either of them. She was shaking, her breaths coming quick and shallow.

She didn't want to be there. She wanted them _away_ from her she wanted to be _gone_. She rolled over to the side of the bed they weren't on and stood up, pushing herself past them and into the corridor. When the couple tried to follow the distressed girl the shadow of the doorway solidified into a steel hard crystal like structure, and despite his best efforts, Conner could not break it. It didn't even weaken when M'gann turned the bedroom's lights on, the thing was so solidly in place. Feeling hopeless, M'gann turned away from the doorway, and her eye caught on a framed picture sitting on a desk. It was of the girl she had seen in Sigrid's nightmare. She was beautiful when she was smiling.

"So what did you see?" Conner asked, finally accepting the fact that they wouldn't be able to get out of the room.

"I was pushed backwards over the railing of a stair landing, and that girl was screaming." she said, pointing to the picture, "Then… some figure, I don't know what it was but it didn't really _look_ like a human, pushed her over it as well. You woke me up after I hit the stairs." They stood in silence. "Do you think… do you think that was a memory? Conner?"

"I don't know."

M'gann sighed and looked closer at all of the pictures on and around the desk. Everyone was smiling, they were all happy. Sigrid's smile didn't have the undertone of sadness in any of them the way it did the two times she had seen it today at the beach.

"These must be her friends," she said, pointing to the picture of them all sitting on the steps, "I wonder if they know what's going on."

"They would have to know some of it." Conner reasoned, "That her mother died and she's living with her dad's family at the very least is what they'd have to know."

"Probably, yeah. I wonder if she has grandparents."

"If she did she would probably be living with them instead of here."

"Do you think they're dead as well?"

"It's a possibility."

M'gann sighed sadly, and straightened the bedcovers so she could sit down.

"I hope she's okay," she said at last.

She wasn't in the cave anymore, that's all she could tell asides from the fact that it was raining. Tall brick apartment buildings loomed over her in the dreaded storm streaked sky, and she could tell from the air and the fact that she couldn't read the street signs that she must still be in America.

The darkness here was cold and unwelcoming, strange, like a dog that belongs to someone else and won't listen when you tell it to do things.

Soon she was soaked, barefoot, loose swim club shirt clinging uncomfortably to her back and running shorts doing nothing to keep what little leg they covered warm.

She didn't feel safe.

That did nothing to help her situation.

At least her clothes were dark and she could hide in the strange shadows of this weird foreign town. She could smell the salt of the ocean over pollution stirred up by the rain. Perhaps she wasn't as far from the cave as she had feared.

She decided to climb the fire escape of the building whose shadow she had materialized from to see if she could see the mountain in the distance. When she managed to get to the top of the five floor building she found that her view was obstructed by larger things. Annoyed, she jumped and climbed agily until she was ten stories above the street. Dismayed, she realized that she didn't recognise any of this area. The skyline wasn't what she had seen from the mountain, even if she tried to picture them both from different angles and match them up. There was no large gothic style clock tower anywhere in that places skyline.

She let out a shaky, tired sigh, and sat down. There was nothing else she could think to do.

" _May as well sit here for eternity not like they'll find me if I move places I'm fucked either way."_ She thought " _gotta love panic attack triggered powers if only they had the sense to put me somewhere I've_ _ **actually been before**_ _but it's not like I have any of my own common damn sense why should I expect my abilities to be graced with such a notion when their wielder has none of it herself."_ She put her head in her hands. There were gunshots a few blocks away but she was too zoned out to care. " _Teleportation powers 10/10 would totally recommend if you find joy in being transported within a foreign country with a language you can barely read that's twice the size of the entire fucking continent you formerly lived your entire life on best experience had only when done alone without prior warning to you or the people who would possibly bother to look for you."_

She suddenly took her face out of her hands.

"I could literally just go to the fucking police." she muttered to herself. " _Gotta love ADHD making you miss crucial details to shit and waste time doing nothing because you couldn't think of anything else useful to do!"_ she thought as she stood back up and looked around at the street again.

"Now where the heck would the police station be?" she muttered, shortly before her ears picked up on sirens and her eyes caught sight of flashing lights several blocks away.

" _How delightfully convenient."_ She thought monotonously as she used a large oak tree to get to the roof on the other side of the street. There she saw a familiar traffic light colored figure, crouching in the shadows with a grappling gun in his hand. He heard her land immediately, since she wasn't exactly discreet, and actually jumped when he recognised her.

"Sigrid?!" Robin exclaimed in an alarmed whisper, "What are you doing here?!"

"If if fucking knew that I'd tell you but my powers seem to do nothing but respond to panic and form half baked plans based around my non-existent sense of American geography so unfortunately you'll have to come up with that answer yourself I'm sure it'll be better than whatever shit I come up with to explain things."

He stared at her, shocked at her cynical tone of voice and for once quick rambling sentences, as if KF had suddenly developed a dark sense of humor and sarcastic outlook on life's events.

"How did you get here?"

"I just said I don't know!" She whispered, exasperated.

The boy wonder raised his eyebrows and nodded, pushing the button that would get him linked to Batman.

"What is it Robin?" his mentor asked over the comm.

"Uh, we have a situation of sorts…"

"What kind of situation?"

"Sigrid showed up."

"What?"

"She's just here now."

"How?"

"I don't think she really knows."

"Is she alright?"

"Possibly?"

"Are there any clear signs of injury?"

Robin looked at her.

"No." She answered.

"No." He repeated.

"I'm in the batmobile now, we'll take her to the nearest Zeta Tube."

"Okay."

Within a couple of minutes she was crammed in the bench seat snug behind the passenger side of the batmobile, glaring holes in the dark shaded window to the outside.

"Care to explain what happened?" The bat asked, trying to lessen the irritated tone in his voice but clearly failing when both teens in the car glared at him through the mirrors.

"You can't write an essay on a book you didn't read, sir."

"Well what happened before...this."

"I wasn't sleeping well. And Megan and Conner woke me up but I didn't want to be around them and their questions so I left. It was dark in the hallway and then it wasn't a hallway and I was between two buildings."

Robin looked at the wet girl through the side view mirror. Her purple eyes shone with irritation and tiredness, the rest of her face was stone, resting tense on her fist.

"Were you having a nightmare when M'gann and Conner woke you up?" Batman asked.

Robin saw her tense even more, which he was surprised at because it didn't seem possible. She stared blankly out of the window, unanswering.

"Did you have a panic attack?" asked Robin knowingly.

Sigrid could feel her throat closing up. She was falling again, but at the same time there was blood everywhere on the floor, not the stairs. There had been hardly any blood on the stairs in comparison. Only enough had pooled from her head to drip down and puddle on the step below. It was almost nothing.

"Sigrid!" Batman barked, and she jolted, realizing that she was shaking and that they were both staring at her in concern.

"What." she croaked, continuing to stare out the window.

Batman sighed.

"I think you need to talk to Black Canary."

"I don't want to."

"Why not?"

"It's not going to change anything. It'll just make it worse."

"Pushing it back and ignoring it is what will make it worse." Robin stated, and she swiveled her eyes to look at him through the mirror.

"How would you know?" she asked monotonously, not expecting a real answer. Batman clenched his jaw.

"I saw my family get murdered."

"Oh."

A few moments of silence dragged on like years through molasses before either of them spoke again.

"What happened to you?" he finally asked.

Sigrid chuckled darkly, and it made the hairs on the necks of both the people in the car stand on end.

"Depends on what occasion you're talking about."


	6. Chapter 6

"What do you mean by that?" Batman asked. They were getting close to the alley way.

"Hm?" Sigrid asked, again staring vacantly out of the window.

"You said that it depended on what occasion we were talking about."

"Mhm."

"Could you tell us about both occasions?"

"Do I have too?"

"If you're going to have that attitude about it, then yes." Batman replied. Sigrid sighed.

"On September 18th last year an _Anemoi Thuellai_ attacked my girlfriend and I while we were going to the art room for theater set building after school. When we ran to the stairwell it pushed us off the landing and to the level under. Laura died. All I got were bruises."

She paused, and the only sound was the engine.

"A little over a week ago I walked into my house to find my mom murdered in the livingroom. A northern cyclops tribe found us. They were annoyed when they got the watered down blood of Hekate instead of a proper demigod like they were looking for, and since there were six of them, she was killed."

"Did your father find them?" Batman asked.

"No. They were standing in the kitchen when I got home."

"Wait-" Robin spoke up, confused, "How did you get out?"

"I killed them."

"All six?!"

"It isn't particularly difficult when rage makes you turn into a mortal torch of hellfire." Sigrid muttered.

"We're here." Batman said, effectively putting an end to the strange conversation.

"Do you think you'll be alright?" The man asked before the duo parted for the batcave.

"I'll be fine." She said, and as she turned her back and walked to the corridor with her room in it, she heard the computer announce their departure. When she got to her doorway she dissolved the shadows to find Conner asleep, laying on the orange rug near her bed with his arms crossed, and M'gann was dozing on her bed with her arm hanging off near her boyfriend's cheek. Sigrid sighed and went to the other side of the bed, pulling the white curtains that usually stayed tied to the posts on the bed across so that if either of them woke up they wouldn't see her changing out of her wet clothes.

M'gann stirred at the sound of opening and closing drawers, and sat up.

"Sigrid?" she asked quietly.

"Stay there, I'm putting clothes on."

"Where did you go? You were gone for a little over 20 minutes."

"Where do Batman and Robin Patrol?" she asked, pulling a royal blue shirt over her head.

"Uh, Gotham, why?"

"Where's that?"

"New Jersey."

There was a pause.

"That's it you guys need to show me a damn map because I cannot for the life of me picture where any of this shit is." M'gann giggled at the girl's irritated outburst and the white sheets parted to show her to be in a v neck and shorts. Sigrid quickly braided her hair into a long damp rope behind her.

"So you went to Gotham?" M'gann asked, Conner sitting up as Sigrid sat cross legged on her bedsheet across from the Martian.

"I guess."

"How did you get there?"

"I don't know, shadow transport? Dad gave me a vague idea of powers I might develop as time goes on and I think that was one of them, so…" she shrugged.

"What happened when you were in Gotham?" Conner asked, curious.

"I climbed a bunch of buildings to see if I could find the outline of the mountain somewhere but that didn't work. Then I decided to go to the authority because they were a few streets away, and when I climbed a tree to the other side of the street I found Robin. Anyway, shouldn't the two of you be getting back to sleep? It's past one."

"You don't look like you're going back to bed," Conner commented.

"My sleep cycle is off. It's about seven in Germany right now."

"What will you do?"

Sigrid shrugged.

"Well, good to see you're back," M'gann said, "I have to study for finals today, so I am definitely going back to bed."

Conner nodded in agreement, and the two left Sigrid's room.

When the two were gone Sigrid rolled across her bed to the nightstand and opened the drawer to get her glasses.

" _It's nice to see lines"_ she decided, walking to her closet and pulling out the box she had been making for her mother for the past week. It was a hardwood, rectangular box with edges she had smoothed down. On the top, bordered by a frame of plain wood were carved interwoven vines of ivy. In the center was a pentacle. She had been debating on whether or not to put anything more on it for a couple of days, but in looking at it now, decided that Mirja would like it fine as it was. She would have to stain and seal the wood today.

She moved her chair to the end table with her smaller herbs and put the herbs on her desk before opening the window. Then she put a cloth on the table and plastic gloves on her hands, as well as an apron around her waist just to be safe. Before she started fully she put on her headphones to block out the unfamiliar sounds of the cave with what she had just started that morning, and then opened the can of wood conditioner.

" _The seller of lightning rods arrived just ahead of the storm."_ The CD read as she began to work, " _He came along the street of Green Town, Illinois, in the late cloudy October day, sneaking glances over his shoulder. Somewhere not so far back, vast lightnings stomped the earth. Somewhere, a storm like a great beast with terrible teeth could not be denied."_

 **The text from the audiobook is the first paragraph from chapter one of** ** _Something Wicked This Way Comes_** **by Ray Bradbury. Sorry this is so short, but I needed to get a new chapter out especially with where the last one left off, but I ended this with the tone I wanted too, so I guess it works just for that! I'll try to get a longer chapter next time. Happy Sunday!**


	7. Chapter 7

**I just wanted to thank AlphaPanther for the reviews and support and everyone who's following the story for being interested! Finally some plotline tracks are gonna be put down!**

"Sigrid, I'd like you to join training today," Black Canary told her before everyone had assembled after school. "You have a good understanding of hand-to-hand combat, but I think you would benefit from learning a few different styles."

The girl shrugged, but had changed into the appropriate clothing to join everyone by the time all of the teens had arrived. For several rounds she stood motionless, just watching, until:

"Sigrid and Robin, go!" Black Canary barked, and the two fourteen-year-olds walked into the circle.

It was almost an endurance fight, since Robin was holding back as usual. The two were evenly matched in height, and did an amazing job of skillfully dodging one another's attacks. The only reason Sigrid could tell her opponent wasn't showing his true skill was because he sped up so significantly when avoiding or blocking her counter attacks. When she managed to turn herself behind him Sigrid grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to bring him backwards so her left thigh would buckle his knees. Luckily for Robin he anticipated the move, and had already seen her do it when she was sparring with the dummy the day before. Before he could be pulled off balance he sprung into the air with such force that he broke free of her grip, and landed on his hands behind her before transitioning upright again. The sudden, unexpected movement was not supported by Sigrid's footing, and she couldn't correct it before falling.

The computer announced her defeat, and Robin held out his hand to help her up. She took with with a smirk and squeezed only slightly more than necessary before she was re-acquainted with the population of the standing.

"Maybe if you'd actually hit me these fights wouldn't just be ended by gravity," she said, side eyeing him before they walked off of the dueling ground to make way for Conner and Artemis. "But I guess there's no fun in a thirty second duel," she continued when he didn't respond.

"Sigrid," Black Canary said as the new sparring duo got into their proper stances, "Good job, but you need to stagger your feet more so a force like Robin's jump is less likely to topple you."

The girl nodded, and Black Canary signaled for Artemis and Conner to begin.

Training didn't last nearly as long as usual since the mentors were conscious of their kids' needs to study, so soon everyone that didn't live in the cave was home, and everyone that did live in the cave sat at their desks hard at work on study guides and flashcards.

Everyone except Sigrid, who had finished her school year in The Underworld as her father had arranged, not seeing it fit to send her back to pesteringly curious classmates and pity-gazed teachers. She had gotten enough of that after Laura had died.

So she stood in front of her dresser, contacts out, jewelry put back into it's assorted box sections, wearing a grey cotton t-shirt and running shorts like she always did when she was ready to go to bed.

But she didn't want to go to bed.

Instead she decided to do the only thing she had been procrastinating other than sleep.

She turned on her phone.

There wasn't a signal that mortal technology could get in The Underworld, so she had been keeping it off the whole time. Through the hastey legal processes Hades had gotten through surrounding the circumstances if his girlfriend's death, and the funeral ceremony arrangements. They didn't happen in the same place.

The normal one for all of the non-pagans who knew Mirja was held in Finland, where she was born and where her parents who wanted nothing to do with their daughter's way of life lived. How he had convinced them to drop the subject of Mirja not being buried, Sigrid wasn't sure she wanted to know. He could be as stubborn as his mistress at times. The Wiccan ceremony was held by the community of single practitioners who all got together for holidays; a group Mirja had joined in Germany. People from covens she had been part of from everywhere she traveled came, though only two from Finland knew the true identity of the man their long time friend had dated for 25 years. Even people who just knew her from town joined.

The ceremony was full of blessings and storytelling. Tales from secondary school to her adventurous escapades later in life filled the long gathering. People brought photographs in memory of her and filled the alter nearly to bursting with images from all points in her life. How Mirja had managed to keep in touch with all of these people almost baffled Sigrid, but that's just how her mother had been. The unforgettable crackle of a winter's bonfire was what Mirja was, and everyone her warmth reached gathered to celebrate her life.

Sigrid's phone booted up.

That was a lot of messages.

After reading through what her friends had sent her, which varied from concern at her unexplained absence to exclamations questioning why they had to find out about her mother's death from the local paper to them asking where the hell she was because they had gone to her house and she wasn't there, she decided to briefly explain as much as she could in a group chat.

 _Sarry for deing unavallabile for os long I'va had my pbone turned off._

Kiarra replied almost instantly.

 **HOLY SHIT IIDA IF YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN I WILL RIDE MY BIKE T JUST TO YELL AT YOU.**

 _plaese don't bo tbat._

 **Are you okay?**

 **Where are you anyway Matthieu and I went to your house and you were gone.**

 **Are you with your grandparents or something?**

 _I'n wifh my dad's femily._

 _In America._

 **America?**

 **Is that why your never saw him? Because he lives in America?**

 _Yez._

Is that why you're texting us so late because it is really really late girls why are you even up Kiarra it's almost Tuesday already. Matthieu messaged, finally joining in on the conversation.

 **Well why are you up?**

Because you two keep making my phone buzz and it woke me up.

Because I go to bed at night.

Like a normal fucking person.

So II' what have you been up to aside from apparently moving to America and ignoring the fact that your phone exists?

Literally no one knows what happened aside from Mirja dying from that freak animal attack no one at school knew what to think and then you never came back.

 _l raelg bont wanf to talk about thet right now uyo two._

 _I just thoughf I'd tell yuo I was fine._

 _I dom'f think I'll be able to visit thuogh._

 _Sorry._

 **What do you mean you won't be able to visit it's not like you can't pay for a plane ride here.**

 _I heva to get used to heer first._

Why?

What's the point in that?

 _Can you iust not question fings for once Matt? It's really compilcated._

 **Then tell us.**

Yeah.

 _All I wantad you to know was that I'm fine okay?_

 _I've done that._

 _Bye._

Wait

 **Hold on a second**

Sigrid turned off her phone with a frustrated sigh.

She probably should have just left it off in the first place.

"Guess who totally didn't get anything wrong on the Chem final!" Wally yelled as he sped out of the Zeta tube and into the rec room, stopping just short of colliding with the kitchen counter. Sigrid stared at him, and hung her headphones around her neck.

"You are here early," she said, cleaning flour off of the surface he nearly hit.

"What's in the oven?"

"Rye bread."

"Bread?" Wally questioned, sniffing the air, "Smells like rosemary."

"There is rosemary in the bread."

"Huh. Do you bake a lot?"

"Sometimes."

"How old are you?" He asked after a pause, looking at her face with curiosity.

She stared at him for a moment.

"I'll be fifteen in July," she said, pulling a toothpick out of a cabinet and opening the oven with a gloved hand.

"Are you going to be a sophomore then?"

"I'll be in grade ten." When the toothpick came out with stuff on it she closed the oven and put the toothpick in the trash.

"Yeah. We call that Sophomore year."

"Why?" she asked with a frown, taking off the oven mitts and tossing them onto the counter.

"I don't really know, actually…" He grinned and ran a hand through his hair. "What were you listening too?" He asked, noting the black headphones around her neck.

"Something Wicked This Way Comes."

"Isn't that a book?"

"Mhm."

"Why not just read it?" Before he could vocalize his remembrance of the fact that english wasn't even her first language she spoke up and said something he hadn't expected.

"Wally I'm dyslexic, I can't even ready my own language." She said it like it was an inside joke she had with herself.

"Oh, sorry, I-"

"It's fine."

"Do you like it? The book?"

"Yeah. It's unsettling, but I like the relationships in it."

"How so?"

"The two boys are really good friends, and the things going on are helping them work through their problems and talk about things. Will's also finally talking to his father, which is nice."

"Cool."

 _Recognised, Batman, 02. Recognised, Robin, B01._

"What do you mean I can't come with you?!" the boy wonder yelled at his mentor, who was holding the dufflebag Wally recognised as meaning his friend would be sleeping at the cave.

"I already told you Robin, it's too dangerous with them all running around," the man replied cooly.

"Which is precisely why I should be with you! It isn't safe for you to be alone!"

"You are staying here until further notice and that is _final_." With that he tossed the bag to his ward and was gone through the zeta beam. Robin let out a cry of frustration and pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes.

"Did something happen in Gotham?" Wally asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Just _something_ would be a hell of an understatement," his friend growled, "Probably the worst Arkham breakout in the history of Gotham happened while I was in school in _broad daylight_ and literally _everyone_ is gone!"

"How'd that happen?!"

"Somehow someone managed to blow up all of the western walls, destroy the doors to all the cells in the building and kill every worker present in the span of half an hour."

"Holy shit." Wally exclaimed in a half whisper.

"And according to Batman the security footage was fried so there's no way to watch what happened. And he won't let me help him track them all down because he's scared I'll get hurt like he isn't going to get hurt if he goes alone!" He flopped down on the couch in an unintentionally dramatic way.

"He's only concerned for your safety Robin." Sigrid said, trying to console him.

"Yeah well I'm concerned for his." he shot back, irritated.

"Make him check in with you every hour," she reasoned. He sat up.

"That is a great idea." Robin quickly activated his wrist computer and contacted his mentor.

"I thought I told you that was the end of the discussion," everyone heard Batman growl.

"If you don't check in with me every hour I am going to assume something is wrong and come find you understood?"

"Robin you are going to stay at the c-"

"I guess that's a yes." Robin said, ending the call.

"You do realize that I'm obligated as your best friend to keep you safe and thus _in_ the cave no matter what happens, right?" Wally commented, "Bats'll have my head on a damn pike if I help you get out of this place."

"I'm not sure he'll be needing you if something happens." Sigrid stated, and when she and Robin made eye contact she smirked. Robin, getting the message immediately broke into a wide grin.

"I'm going to pretend I _didn't_ just catch you two silently scheming," Wally noted, walking away from the two of them with an apple from the fruit bowl in his hand.

"That's probably the safest thing for you to do." Robin admitted.


	8. Chapter 8

**Who's ready for more friendship development between Sigrid and Robin? :D**

 **Also plot though. This isn't just a filler chapter. And again thank you all for the support!**

As soon as Wally and Artemis had started making out Robin bailed, deciding to give his friends some alone time. He was on his way to the room he used when he had to stay at the cave when he noticed someone's door was open. Curious, he peaked inside. It was Sigrid's. She was standing in front of the wide window, watering her plants from a glass jar. She looked over her shoulder and saw him in the doorway.

"Hi," Sigrid said with a smile, setting the jar down.

"Hey," he replied, stepping into the sun filled room and looking around. "You garden?"

"I try," she giggled softly at his slightly awkward attempt at conversation, and Robin grinned.

"What are you growing?"

"Sage, lavender, mint, rosemary, oregano and basil," she said, pointing to each one in turn. A sea salt breeze drifted through the open window and mingled with the scent of herbs and cinnamon settled in the quiet air.

"It's nice out," the boy commented, and Sigrid nodded.

"What took you here?" she asked.

"My room is down the hall," Robin replied, showing her the bag over his shoulder after taking a second to realize what she was asking. She nodded.

"He's only doing what he thinks is best."

"I know that," Robin grumbled, turning to the side. His eyes caught on the bookshelves. "Doesn't mean he isn't being selfish."

"Why is he making you stay here?"

"I've gotten past Agent A enough times by now for him to know better," he almost laughed as he scanned the bookshelf filed with CD cases, jars, and boxes.

"Does he work with the two of you?"

"Yeah." At last he had gotten to the part of the shelves with cases that had english on the spines, and he realized they were books. Sigrid sat at the end of her bed and watched as Robin studied her room., as he noticed the sketchbook she had left open on her desk. "What's this?" he asked, and her face flushed.

"Well… I live here, I may as well be useful." she said quickly as the boy wonder looked over the design. It was an all black bodysuit with a hood that seemed like it would be better fit to a cloak. A white design was on the chest, a thick line starting at the waist, intersecting with the white utility belt, with two new lines branching out a few inches below the collar. The two new lines curved out wide to the shoulder, the back view drawing showing that they hooked, thinning to points near the shoulder blades. The center line went on a couple inches before meeting the hood, which had a white trim, making it look like part of the symbol.

"What's the part in white?"

"It's a symbol of my father depicting his scepter and helm. It's also used as an alternative sign for pluto sometimes."

"So why a hood but no cape?"

"Capes are too easily caught on things and grabbed, and I don't think I'll be needing it for gliding. The hood conceals my face, which is the only thing that would stick out in the shadows because of how white I am. It might block side vision, but I can always take it down in a fight."

Robin nodded.

"Have you thought of a name?"

Sigrid grimaced.

"Everything is... cheesy."

Robin grinned.

"Tell me."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."

"But their bad…"

"Sigrid the Justice League has people who call themselves ridiculous things professionally I'm pretty sure whatever you come up with will be fine," he laughed, sitting backwards in the desk chair with his arms resting on top of it's back.

"Alright but if you laugh at any of them I'm never talking to you ever again."

"Deal."

"Hellfire and Shade based off of what I can do but that's too obvious… No way I'm calling myself Shadow." Robin nodded with a smirk. "Obsidian kind of works because that's what it looks like when I solidify things, but it's so many…" she paused, looking annoyed. "You know the thing in language where it's like-" she started tapping her arm with two fingers. Robin raised his eyebrows. "The thing?"

"What?"

"The-" she tapped her arm again a couple of times, "-thing."

There was a pause where they just stared at one another before her eyes went wide.

"SYLLABLES!" she shouted suddenly, and a look of startled realization dawned on her friend's face.

"Oh! That's what you were doing!"

"Yes!"

"Okay."

"Yes, so Obsidian works meaning wise but it's too many syllables and it can't be shortened to anything sensical so that doesn't work."

"Are there any others?"

"One…"

"What is it?"

"But it's a bird. You're already a bird."

"So? It's not like we have a quota on birds."

"A what?"

"A quota. Like, a limit."

"Ah."

"So what bird?"

"Crow."

"Why?"

"They're protective, cunning, and social, and are connected with magic with other things. The screech owl is my father's bird but I'm not sure that would fit. Also, brown and white aren't the stealthiest of colors," she joked, and the two of them laughed.

"Well, if you like Crow, then be Crow. If you're going to be a bird I'm gonna have to teach you how to use a grapple gun for flying though."

"Really? I thought that would happen regardless."

Robin shrugged.

"It's kind of a bat thing, mostly for city patrol, but it helps mobility in some recon missions depending on the area."

"Would have been useful to have that on Monday." she laughed, but Robin looked at her questioningly. "Monday morning. I climbed about three buildings and a tree before I saw you."

"Why?"

"I was trying to see the mountain."

"Without your glasses?"

Sigrid looked at him in surprise.

"How did you know?"

"They're on your nightstand," he said pointing, "Besides, I saw the contact lenses in your eyes while we were at the beach."

She nodded.

Robin's wrist computer glowed suddenly, and he pressed a button causing his mentor's face to pop up.

"Robin. Just… checking in." Batman said gruffly.

"How is it out there?" Robin asked, all previous cheerfulness in his voice replaced by gravity, and his face turned into a slight frown.

"It's nothing I won't be able to handle on my own." Robin's frown deepened, but he held his tongue. "I'll be checking in again later. Make sure you're staying in the cave."

With that the call ended, and Sigrid watched as Robin scowled at the holographic screen; as if that would make Batman come back on and tell him he had changed his mind.

She decided not to comment.

It was near midnight and Batman hadn't contacted him in over an hour. The tracer also didn't show him to be moving either, and when he decided to risk a call to Alfred, he hadn't heard from him.

So Robin stood outside of Sigrid's door, waiting for her to get changed into whatever she had deemed appropriate for what she was about to help him with. He had put together an extra utility belt for her, in case something happened, mostly for the first aid supplies and briefly practiced with grappling hook. Hopefully what he'd shown her to do in the forest near the cave earlier would translate well to Gotham's skyline. She came out in a thick black turtleneck and black pants. He tossed the belt to her so they could be on their way. When she turned he saw her hair was braided and pinned up out of grabbing distance.

Then they held each other's arms by the elbows, and everything went black and cold. It felt to Robin like wading through water, but the water was in a ziplock bag with the plastic just pressing on him from everywhere impossibly. Robin had no sense of direction in the ink dark. There was no ground to feel, no air or noise to judge the place he was in off of. Only the pressure of Sigrid's hand on his forearm, and his grasping hers, tighter in a fear he wasn't willing to admit.

She knew where she was going. She could feel the darkness, and it knew where she was going too. It tugged at her softly in the direction she had to go to get to what she was picturing, the shadows of that area pressing like ripples so she could feel her way towards them. There was near nothing to see, but she opened her sugilite eyes regardless, their purple shining with unknown power as if daring some rogue shape in black to impede her will.

Nothing did.

They slid out of the shadows of an Old Gotham alleyway like oil slipping through water, and Robin let out a shaky breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"You can breath when we do that you know," Sigrid joked in a low whisper, and he couldn't help but grin. "So where are we going?"

Robin brought up the map on his wrist computer and pointed to the stationary red dot marking Batman's computer tracker in East End.

"It's a bit far," he said, getting out his grappling gun, "but it shouldn't take long."

He was impressed with how quickly she caught on to swinging through the buildings, and while she could work on her landing, she had a good judge of distance and spacial awareness. Soon they were standing on the roof of an abandoned brick apartment building, looking down at the overgrown courtyard where the tracker had led them.

To Robin, it didn't add up.

To Sigrid, something was incredibly wrong.

"I'm going down there to find out what's going on," he whispered, giving her no time to protest before he swung silently off of the building and onto the cracked pavement below, where he was alone. Alone, but for selective broken shards of his mentor's wrist computer, and the chip that had it's tracking device, placed in a purposeful pile at the base of a tree. Sigrid landed softly behind him.

The broken front door of the apartment building creaked open, and Robin had his batarangs ready in a second. Sigrid fell into a fighting stance, clenching her gloved hands into fists, not trusting her throwing aim.

The man behind the door couldn't have been more than 20, with clean cut short black hair and eyes deep like the night. In his black band t-shirt, skinny jeans, and red converse he could have been anyone, if it wasn't for the steel Xiphos sheathed at his waist and the lightning bolt shaped scar snaking down his left arm from his shoulder. He smiled a charming, thin jawed face at Sigrid, but it didn't warm his eyes.

The young man leaned against the doorframe of the building and crossed his ankles, watching the two tense teenagers with what looked like amusement.

"What did you do with Batman?" Robin growled. The young man sighed and rolled his eyes.

"I made it so his communicator was broken and the tracker for it was here, obviously. What did you want me to do, actually kidnap him? Too much work, and besides, you bats aren't my goal anyway."

"What do you want?" Sigrid spat, preparing for him to turn into something, just like the janitor had when she was cornered with Laura.

She wasn't going to repeat that day.

He shrugged.

"Only to introduce myself, really. We're technically family after all," he grinned, and it was like the air became colder. "Well, not really, but Greek is Greek. I'm Blake Thompson, demigod, like you. Also not allowed refuge on Olympus, like you. Figured we could team up and help each other out."

Sigrid narrowed her eyes. He felt like deceit and hatred.

"I have no reason to trust you, demigod or not," she said with a tone of iron.

"Really? I'm disappointed," Blake said in an almost-pout. "I thought you didn't want to endanger any more innocent lives by being around mortals, I guess I was wrong."

Robin saw her go rigid, and he knew exactly what button this guy was pressing. Blake turned around to leave, and the teens noticed the top of a branded symbol like a capital K in a circle poking out from where the collar of his shirt stopped covering his neck. When he looked over his shoulder, he made eye contact with Sigrid.

"The attacks are never going to stop you know," he said finally, before the shadows engulfed him, and he was gone.


	9. Chapter 9

When they slipped back into the shadows of the cave Robin wasn't sure what to think. He could tell from the way Sigrid suddenly closed off that she wasn't going to want to talk about it, so he was about to leave when she spoke.

"We need to find out who he is," she said, sitting down at her desk and pulling her laptop out of a drawer. As the laptop logged in she sketched out the part of the symbol they had seen at the base of Blake's neck with a line determining what they had seen from what she was guessing. When she continued the circle and the lines, the one that intersected with the vertical one first went through, before she erased it and made it end where they met.

"The lines," she said, catching Robin's attention, "Do they look like they could be making a K?"

"With the way you've drafted them, yeah."

"Alright." She opened a web browser and googled the description of the symbol she drew.

"Well I don't think he'd brand himself with a Kosher mark." Robin joked when those results popped up. Sigrid huffed in an irritated tone and put the word mythology at the end of her search. The Wikipedia page for astrological symbols was the first thing listed. They both frowned. When she scrolled down to the chart of the planet symbols and their meanings she stopped at the dwarf planet Eris. One of the signs was exactly what Sigrid had drawn. The Apple of Discord.

"Shit." Sigrid muttered under her breath.

"Is that a bad thing?" Robin asked, trying to remember why that name sounded familiar.

"More than likely, yes. The Apple of Discord is the apple Eris, the goddess of strife, threw causing Hera, Athena and Aphrodite to fight and begin the trojan war. It's Eris's symbol. If Blake is a son of her's that would explain why he said we were only related through the greek pantheon, and not literally."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Eris is a daughter of Nyx, who is the goddess of the night. She's just existed the same way Gaia, Uranus and Tartarus did, which means her branch of the family is completely different from mine because the titans came from Gaia and Uranus and the first six gods, including my dad, came from the titans."

"Would that be why Blake isn't allowed on Olympus either?"

"Well, why would they want the kids of the goddess of strife and discord when they don't even want the kids of one of the most organised, hardworking gods in the family?" she asked with bitterness in her voice, and Robin raised his eyebrows at her. She made eye contact with him and they stared at eachother for a while.

"Do you like cinnamon?" she asked suddenly.

"What?"

Sigrid spun around in her chair and opened the bottom drawer of her desk, revealing a large stash of candy and crackers. She pulled her hand from it and placed a hard disk that looked like a peppermint, but pink and red, into the bent elbow of the boy's crossed arms before popping one of her own into her mouth.

"Why do you just have a drawer filled with candy?" Robin asked slowly, watching her type something else into google.

"Hard candy is a focusing stim."

"What's that mean?"

"I have ADHD, stimming as a repetitive motion or action people with developmental or other kinds of disorders use to calm down or just in response to other things their doing. Like thinking," she paused, and Robin unwrapped the candy. "Blake Thompson is a really common name."

He looked at her screen and saw that she had tried to look him up.

"You probably have better means of doing this, right?" she asked, and he nodded.

"What are you looking for?"

"Legal documents, he's probably an orphan or on the run so any records proving that, anything to build a basic profile other than visual."

"Yeah, I think you'll need me to find that information."

The door opened, and they both jumped, Sigrid banged her knee on the edge of her desk and swore.

"And what kind of secret investigation are you two doing at a quarter to almost one in the morning?" Batman asked, arms crossed and eyes thinned to a glare.

"Demigod business," Sigrid stated, unperturbed.

"What happened?"

"You broke your computer and Robin freaked out when you didn't call so I took him to Gotham and we followed the tracer. When we got to it an adult demigod named Blake Thompson who we've figured out to be a son of Eris was waiting for me and had clearly set it up as a 'trap' or something. He offered partnership on the basis that we are both demigods who aren't allowed refuge in Olympus. He didn't feel trustworthy, so I denied him."

"I told Robin to stay in the cave."

"I know."

"So you helped him disobey direct orders?" the man asked, fixing his ward with his glare.  
"I helped him check to make sure his adult wasn't in the middle of the street dying or dead because he wasn't there to watch his back," Sigrid corrected icily, and the glare focused on her again.

"What you did was reckless and unnecessary, and it will _not_ happen again."

"Going into Gotham with so many people who would have no trouble killing you without some form of backup was reckless and unnecessary," she countered, her refusal to back down beginning to frustrate the bat.

"You are not to do anything like this _ever_ again Sigrid, do you understand?"

"Yes." she replied, not a hint of shame or regret in her voice.

"I will be speaking to Wonder Woman about this," he said, before leaving the room. Robin took that as his queue to leave. Before he walked through the doorway he turned.

"Sorry I got you in trouble with this."

"It's not your wrong. I was the one who decided to help you to begin with."

He frowned, still feeling guilty, but quietly went to bed anyway.

That morning was interesting with everyone rushing around to school. People pulling on shirts while they ran to eat breakfast as fast as possible in order to cram in some last minute studying, Wolf and Sphere making obstacles of themselves, Zatanna hit Conner in the face with a levitating textbook that was flying after her, it was over all chaos. In that chaos Sigrid came out of her room, bags under her eyes, but otherwise looking presentable. She wore an earthy brown loose tunic style top that had eyelet lace around the neck and flowing sleeves in turquoise thread. The normally silver studs in her ears were changed out for gold ones, the only other jewelry she wore were her parent's rings on her fingers, and her ax around her neck. Her hair was in an unrestrained cloud, wider than her shoulders and down to her waist, the only other tell apart from her eyes that she had slept little. That's how she looked as her housemates rushed around her, saying 'good mornings' and 'goodbyes' until she was the only one left. That's how Diana found her, sitting in the kitchen, eating lunchmeat and cheese on toast for breakfast with a nearly gone cup of coffee. She had a notebook in front of her, and headphones over her ears. As Diana approached her she typed something into her phone and scribbled what came up into the notebook before pausing what she was listening to and taking off the headphones. They exchanged greetings as the woman sat down.

"I'd like to talk to you about something that Batman informed me happened."

"And what's that?" Sigrid asked, pretending to feign ignorance when she was actually wondering which of the two midnight escapades her cousin had been told about, unaware that Wonder Woman knew of both.

"The little adventure you had last night with Robin," Diana said sternly.

"Ah, that."

"Yes. I wanted to make sure that you understood what you did wrong."

"I helped a friend make sure the closest person he has to a family member was safe. While my way of doing it is understandably… unapproved, I do not regret doing it."

"Do you understand that you are not to do it again?"

"Yes." _As if that means it won't happen again anyway_ she thought, but didn't say.

"Good. Now, tell me about this son of Eris you met."

"His name was Blake and he wanted to team up. He had a scar that branched like lightning down his left arm, and a brand of the symbol for the apple of discord at the base of his neck, which is how Robin and I came to the conclusion, that he was a son of Eris. He didn't seem trustworthy, so I said no."

"That was probably a wise decision." Diana paused, unsure where to go with the conversation since what she came to talk about ended until her eyes fell on the spiral bound notebook. "What were you doing?"

"Learning more English."

"How?"

"I listen to books and look up the words I don't recognise, and I write them all in this with what they mean and words in my other languages that mean the same thing."

"That's an interesting way to learn."

Sigrid merely nodded.

"Are you enjoying it here?"

"Mhm."

"I'm glad. Well," Diana said, standing from the stool, "If you come to need anything, talk to me, alright?"

"Alright."

 _Recognised, Wonder Woman 03._

Sigrid put her headphones back on.


	10. Chapter 10

It was June 21st, the summer solstice. Instead of celebrating, Sigrid was in the deeper parts of the cave, past the grotto, where the cement walls gave way to natural rough stone and no electricity reached. That became her spot, the only person who knew to look there was Robin, after the day he had gotten bored and followed her. She had pretended to not know he was behind her until it got so dark he tripped over an uneven patch of rock and she jumped back to catch him. He said he didn't know this part of the cave existed. It wasn't part of the blueprints. She had laughed and said that they were probably too scared to build out so deep underground, and didn't expect anyone to ever get down here anyway. He agreed.

"What brings you down here?" she asked when she knew he was behind her. He shrugged.

"What brings you?"

"Nothing I feel like talking about."

His flashlight moved over her back, illuminating the way she sat on a shelf like outcrop on the wall. Her guitar was strapped around her shoulder, but he already knew she had taken it. He had heard the steel strings echo with her voice before stopping when she sensed him enter the shadows. He didn't understand why she didn't like people to hear her play.

"I was thinking about exploring deeper today," she said, turning her head to look at him, "Are you up to it?"

"Duh."

She huffed a small laugh before standing up, moving the guitar to her back and putting the pick in her pocket.

"Your flashlight is going to run out of battery eventually."

"Yeah?"

"Turn it off."

"How'll I see?"

"The walls will be illuminated."

He frowned at her in confusion before the flashlight's beam was dimmed by other sources of light. Small spheres like tiny suns, moving as if they were fireflies, filled the passageway with a warm glow.

"I've been practicing," was all that Sigrid said when he looked at her in wonder.

"How does it work?" he asked, and they started moving.

"What?"

"Your spells? Zatanna has to say the words backwards."

"They're just statements, if I believe it will happen, it will work. Most of the time. If I'm lucky."

"Huh."

"So what are you doing down here?"

Robin was quiet for a moment, deciding whether or not he really wanted to answer.

"Zatanna and Rocket are going on an off world mission with Hawkwoman for the summer," he eventually said, quietly. "They leave the day after tomorrow."

"How long does that mean she'll be gone?"

"About three months, if things go as planned."

"I'm sure things will be fine."

They walked in silence, the group of about twenty floating lights following them through the stone walkway, glinting off the slight dampness of the walls. They came to a point where another pathways branched from the one they had been walking on, and Sigrid frowned at it.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said slowly, turning away from the new path, "Let's keep going this way."

They walked for a while longer, Robin studying his friend's face whenever the area was wide enough for them to walk next to each other, seeing as she looked and frowned, at what, he didn't know.

Eventually the path forked off, and the way to the right that Sigrid looked down startled her, glad that Robin couldn't see so far in the dark. It was walled off in red brick. She took them left, and the path sloped upwards. The walls became dirt, lined with tree roots, and when Robin asked where she thought it was going she didn't know.

That path branched off into three, one going ahead up, one going ahead back down, the other to the right. The path to the right gave them both a bad feeling, and she didn't want to take them deeper, so up they went. Compact dirt and roots became cement and circuitry, until Robin decided to check where the GPS in his wrist computer said they were.

They were in Gotham, under one of the main streets going through East End.

"There's no way we walked that far!" Robin exclaimed in disbelief as Sigrid took a sharp breath at the revelation, "We've been gone for like, half an hour!"

"I'm taking us back," Sigrid said sternly, and before Robin could question her or anything else further he was pulled by the arm into pressing shadows, lead through until they were in the woods near the cave.

"What was that?!"

"I don't know," Sigrid admitted, "Something with magic obviously."

"Is that why you kept frowning?"

"No…"

"Well then why were you frowning?"

"Something felt wrong with the shadows. They weren't responsive in the same way they usually are back when we were deeper, even when we were there."

"What's that mean?"

"How would I know?"

"Well you're the magic one."

Sigrid snorted.

"I hope you realize that I only _kind of_ know what I'm doing right?"

"Well isn't that reassuring."

She was going to retort when Wolf came bounding through the trees, making them both jump for higher ground as the large animal skidded to a panting stop where they had previously been standing. Not so soon after Wolf had stopped Wally blurred into sight next to him, reprimanding him for running off before noticing that Wolf had run after his friends.

"What are you two doing out here?" he asked, Robin crouched on the same tree branch that Sigrid gracelessly hung from, knees tucked into her chest to avoid hitting Wolf with her boots.

"We were talking."

"Training."

They said in unison, and Wally raised an eyebrow.

"You were training out here with a guitar and talking?"

"Yes," they said together again.

"And what were you training for exactly?"

"Agility," Sigrid stated, "That's why we're out here with all of the trees. What are you doing here?"

"I lost a bet with Con and now I have to clean up after Wolf," he said, a slight grimace on his face, gesturing with his hand to the plastic bag in his pants pocket. "Anyway, what do you play?"

"Acoustic guitar music."

"Play something!" Robin encouraged, and Wally nodded enthusiastically.

"I don't really, uh…"

"Oh come on, it's not like we can judge you when neither of us can play," Wally joked. Sigrid sighed in almost mock irritation before situating the guitar in front of her and pausing.

"Shit what do I know that's actually in english…?" She let out an exasperated groan and then started playing. After about a measure she began to sing in a voice that rang through the trees like concert bells.

 _What a beautiful face I have found in this place_

 _That is circling all 'round the sun_

 _What a beautiful dream that could flash on the screen_

 _In a blink of an eye and be gone from me_

 _Soft and sweet_

 _Let me hold it close and keep it here with me_

 _And one day we will die and our ashes will fly_

 _From the aeroplane over the sea_

 _But for now we are young let us lay in the sun_

 _And count every beautiful thing we can see_

 _Love to be in the arms of all_

 _I'm keepin' here with me_

 _What a curious life we have found here tonight_

 _There is music that sounds from the street_

 _There are lights in the clouds, Anna's ghost all around_

 _Hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me_

 _Soft and sweet_

 _How the notes all bend and reach above the trees_

She hummed the next four lines, a slightly embarrassed smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, and the boys looked at eachother in confusion.

 _But now we keep where we don't know_

 _All secrets sleep in winter clothes_

 _With one you loved so long ago_

 _Now we don't even know his name_

With that the song ended.

"What was with that part you hummed?" Wally asked, and Sigrid sighed.

"Questionable content."

"What did it say?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, we're all over thirteen here."

"Fine but if it makes you both uncomfortable it's your own fault," she said, cheeks rosier than they were earlier. She started from the third stanza.

 _What a curious life we have found here tonight_

 _There is music that sounds from the street_

 _There are lights in the clouds, Anna's ghost all around_

 _Hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me_

 _Soft and sweet_

 _How the notes all bend and reach above the trees_

 _Now how I remember you_

 _How I would push my fingers through_

 _Your mouth to make those muscles move_

 _That made your voice so smooth and sweet_

 _But now we keep where we don't know_

 _All secrets sleep in winter clothes_

 _With one you loved so long ago_

 _Now we don't even know his name_

When she looked at the boys she burst out into laughter. Wally looked as if his eyebrows were making an attempt to escape the confines of his forehead, and Robin looked puzzled, but still concerned.

"That's why I cut that part out," she giggled breathlessly.

"Yeah…" Wally said, uncertain, narrowing his eyes, "That's an odd couple of lines…."

"What's that song called anyway?" Robin asked, rubbing Wolf between the ears.

" _In an Aeroplane Over The Sea_ by Neutral Milk Hotel. It's the first song I learned to sing in english."

"Haven't they been inactive since like, the 90's?"

"Eeh… They've done a little bit of live stuff I think? I'm not sure. I only know their songs because of a friend of mine."

"Then why did you learn how to play this one?" Wally asked.

"Because I'm romantic like my father and I will learn as many weird graphic songs as I have too in order to entertain the person of my affections," she said jokingly, but also almost sadly. Wally looked at her, questioning the sudden change of tone. When he looked at Robin the realization hit the bird like a brick. She had learned it for Laura.

"Anyway," she said, "We should get back inside."

"Yeah," Robin said, watching her closely. She stuffed her shaking hands into the pockets of her jeans.

The air was dry and hot in the large room. The entire place seemed to be made of black marble, the depth of the dark stone absorbing the torchlight so the room seemed dim. The ceiling was a high void, and if someone looked closely, they could see the golden sun and silver moon that cycled across the abyss with clicks of clockwork, never ceasing their movement.

But Sigrid wasn't looking at the ceiling. She was looking at the girl with the wooden recurve bow, standing in the left of the space with a quiver on her hip and arrows held in the draw hand. The girl had olive skin and sun bleached hair that sat above her shoulders in tight pin curls. Her eyes were the brown of a cold mug of coffee, absentmindedly left out, forgotten about, before it took an elbow to the handle hours later and spilled all over the counter. Her low necked tank top was green, and gave Sigrid a clear view from behind of the white scarring like a lightning bolt jolting from her shoulder down her to fingers, as well as the brand at the base of her neck. It was a symbol she would recognise anywhere. A circle with a dot in the center. The astrological symbol of the sun.

The sound of a heavy door opening made the girl, somewhere between 17 and 20, turn. Sigrid got ready to run when she was spotted, but the brown eyes past over her as though she wasn't there. Cautiously, she turned around as well. The one who entered was someone she recognised. Blake Thompson, with his short hair spiked towards the middle, walked in looking the same as he had when he had introduced himself to her.

"Hey Irene, anything knew?" he asked casually, and the girl rolled her eyes.

"I've been cooped up in here for two days Thompson, the only thing that's happened is the moving of the gears."

"Damn kid you don't have to give me an attitude about it."

"Well it's not like anything else will get your ass in gear," she muttered, fingering the string of her bow with a small twang.

"Look Perez, if you went out during the day time your father would be on your ass in a hot second, and I'm the one who can actually somewhat stomach shadow traveling, meaning I'm the one who gets to be out."

"All I want is some fucking fresh air! Gods, why do you have to be so impossible!?"

Blake sighed and put his head in his hands.

"Sweetie we have too much to do right now-"

"We're all tired of being underground Thompson! Couldn't we at least have found the workshop? I'm pretty damn sure Daedelus would have had windows in there -at the very _least_ -."

"It's too dangerous to go exploring, even if we're on her side, and you fucking know that," Blake said, suddenly completely serious, "Especially since that Hades kid isn't with us right now."

Sigrid took a sharp breath at her mention, and stepped back into the shadow of a column despite knowing they couldn't see her anyway.

"How do you know she'd be able to navigate the Labyrinth anyway?"

"I don't, it's just an educated guess," Irene looked exasperated at his nonchalant statement, "I mean, her father is Hades, Lord of the underworld and all underground places, and her mother was Mirja damn Mustonen, a fucking prodigy of magic and a hero on several levels in her own right, if anyone alive and kicking is going to be able to navigate this place with little to no hassle, it'd be her."

"Hey den mothers," a new voice called from a darkened archway Sigrid hadn't noticed earlier that led to a nearly pitch black hall, dotted with the occasional torch and what looked like a camping lamp further down, "if you don't shut up you'll be waking up the whole place real soon, so stuff it."

"Calm your tits Ace they'd sleep through a damn trainwreck at this point." Blake called to the shaggy black haired boy with clear blue eyes who couldn't be much older, if even, than Sigrid. He wore nothing over the bandages on his chest, and Sigrid saw that he didn't have the same scarring on his arm as the other two did. However, she did see another brand when he turned at the waist to look over his shoulder. It was at the base of the neck, like all the others. The sigil for Jupiter.

"I nearly bled to death two days ago and you woke _me_ up, so unless you-," he narrowly avoided being hit in the back of the head by a dirty pillow that had long lost its casing.

"Shut. The fuck. Up," a tired, irritated voice echoed from the darkness, "Unless you want your medic to pass out in the middle of pining someone's _bones_ back into place next time one of you shits gets careless!"

Irene grimaced, and Sigrid guessed that she was the one the person in the hall was referencing.

"Go back to bed Jacob," the girl called.

"You can't tell me what to do." The flop of someone laying down on a sleeping bag was heard from the corridor and Irene sighed.

"Well I think that was enough excitement for tonight." Blake commented, and Irene shot him a glare. "It's the summer solstice, you know what that means."

"Of course I know what that means, Nyx has only been planning for a millennia," she mocked as the two of them left the large room, Blake picking up the pillow and tossing it to the one he had called Ace earlier, the sudden movement of catching making the boy wince.

With that, the dream faded, and Sigrid was dumped back into the depths of the nightmares she so regularly endured.


	11. Chapter 11

"Alright, it's morning, everybody up." Blake called loudly, his voice echoing in the cavern. Skylar rolled over with a groan into Jacob, who was being shaken awake by his older sister Irene.

"Owens, up." Alexander said, nudging her unceremoniously with his toe. Skylar glared at the disowned son of Zeus, marked by his father's lightning. His coarse wavy hair suck up with bedhead in an amusing way, and she fought back a snicker. She sat up and stretched to get the kinks of sleeping on the uneven floor out of her bones.

"Ace, do a headcount," Blake told the boy who woke up Skylar as he passed around the peanut butter jar and a box of cheez its.

"Skylar," the boy called.

"Here," she replied, putting her shoulder length red-brown hair into a ponytail.

"Irene."

"Mhm," she grunted.

"Jacob."

"Here."

"Blake."

"Yup."

"And I'm here obviously," Alexander said to himself, once everyone that was left was accounted for, and got a handful of crackers from the box as it passed him. He saw Jacob look at the box sadly, and remembered that they had been Karen's favorites. The son of Apollo wore her necklace. If it wasn't for it's history he'd have joked about the girly rainbow pendant, the symbol of Iris, who had been Karen's mother, but he had better taste than that.

"We're getting low on supplies again," Irene reported, "We're gonna need to go out today."

"If only Meg had come with us," Jacob commented.

"Are you kidding me? Meg can't pick pockets for shit all she can do is break locks and look unassuming under suspicion," Ace scoffed, and Skylar nodded in agreement.

"Okay, well," Blake started, pausing when he caught the sharp glare from Irene, "I'll take some people to raise a little hell with me."

"You will not be 'raising hell', Thompson," Irene said sternly, "Theft isn't supposed to attract any attention."

"Remember to give me the wallets after so I can drop them by the police department!" Skylar reminded, and Ace rolled his eyes.

"Why do you need to do that again?"

"So they get their wallets back, all we need is the cash."

"Besides," Jacob added with a wry smile, "if you don't give it to her she can't write down how much we took from who and their address off the driver's licenses so that she can pay them all back when this is over and she has another source of income."

Ace snorted, and Blake burst out into laughter. Skylar bristled.

"I guess the scales really do fit you, kid," Irene joked with a smile, and Skylar made her face into a tight, comedic frown, causing the older girl to fully burst out into laughter.

"Okay, okay, back on track you guys," Blake said, clapping his hands together several times to get everyone's attention, "What were we talking about?"

Everyone collectively either grimaced or frowned.

"Theft?" Jacob guessed.

"Yes!" Blake said, pointing in accomplishment of having re-aligned his train of thought, "We need to get supplies. Ace, Irene and Skylar, you're with me. Jacob can hang by the subway and play his shit or something, we won't be far away."

"Wait, you aren't going to make me stay behind and guard camp?" Jacob asked, surprised.

"No, we're not doing that anymore, not after last time. Besides, we can hide most of what matters and keep everything else on us. Not like there's many other living things down here anyway."

"And if there's any demigods who find our shit they can just join us anyway," Irene added, and the group nodded in agreement.

"The fact that we get anything done at all with how distracted we get amazes me." Ace muttered.

"Gives me a new appreciation for Chiron," Blake admitted, "Poor guy must feel like he's herding frantic cats."

"The fact that he even bothers to give us schedules is truly hopeful on his part, that's for fucking sure," Irene laughed, and everyone joined in.

"Damn. How're we gonna face him after all of this?" Jacob asked quietly, looking at the ceiling.

"With victory of a new republic," Skylar said with determination and sureness.

"But would he see that as victory though? I mean, how much blood is gonna have to be spilt? Zeus sure as shit ain't gonna give up his throne easily," Irene muttered the last part bitterly, and Ace nodded sternly.

"Well, we need to get going guys, get the rope," Blake said, managing to divert everyone's attention from the dark prospects of their futures and cause. Soon they were all tied together by their belt loops and holding hands in a big line, following their eldest through the oily darkness to their destination.

 **Bunch of new characters that I didn't actually anticipate having at the beginning of this story, so here's some info to keep them straight for you guys and for me.**

 **Alexander Rosales, son of Zeus, age 15, Cutler Maine.**

 **Skylar Owens, daughter of Dike, age 16, Waldport Oregon.**

 **Jacob Slater, son of Apollo, age 16, Naperville Illinois.**

 **Irene Perez, daughter of Apollo, age 18, Waco Texas.**

 **Blake Thompson, son of Eris, age 20, Berea Kentucky.**

 **I also wanted to make sure this was clear too, Greeks and Romans are the same camp, in the same Olympus, so like Ace is a son of Zeus, he'd also be considered a son of Jupiter and vis versa. All demigod residents have their parent's symbol on them, most of them being the planetary ones if their parent has a planet or astral body or sorts (like Eris). In the case of Skylar, she has a set of scales, for justice.**

 **Sorry the chapter is so short, but with how close I'm posting it to the last post that's how it goes! Thank you all for the views and feedback as always!**


	12. Chapter 12

**I'm sorry it took so long to get this together, it isn't much, but it isn't all I've written in the little over a week since I last posted either. I'm trying to do some girl team bonding but what I have feels too short and the whole thing is being road blocked by my brain, so instead I'm giving you guys more of the rebel demigod group. Hopefully the next chapter will actually have Sigrid and the team in it! Fingers crossed!**

-brief time skip from last chapter-

It was evening. They were in Connecticut, the two children of Apollo looking at the sunset that poked through the clouds over the ocean, relishing the outdoors while the other three sat at the boardwalk and ate their burgers. They could only hide in the Labyrinth for so long at a time before something picked up on their scent, or so they had assumed after the first two times they spent over a few days in there in a row. It was like there were more monsters coming out of Tartarus recently or something. Between them and the nearly unnoticeable traps every other turn the surface was almost preferred. Ace sat at the picnic table, constantly surveying their surroundings. The bounce of his leg made the table shake slightly, but the other two knew better than to bring it up with Blake's finger tapping and Skylar's rocking, so they stayed silent. Due to the weather not many people were out, which made it even easier for Ace to spot him. He was tall and long, the only thing keeping him from looking like a stick figure being his muscles. His hair was in box braids down to his shoulders. He had a wide mouth and nose, with a squarer jawline. His eyes, the clear,dense green of icebergs that had only recently seen the air, stood out against his dark skin. No one would have thought they were cousins.

The wind picked up when Ace made eye contact with the eighteen year old, and Blake noticed immediately, following the boys line of sight. The man swore under his breath, catching Skylar's attention. Ace stood, but Eliott, still several yards away, shook his head. He had no business with the three of them. Instead he began to walk towards Irene and Jacob, who were sitting at the edge of the doc.

Jacob, for some reason, found that to be the best time to look behind him, and nearly startled himself into the water at the sight of his friend. His blood went cold with dread as Eliott approached him.

"I'm taking you home," the young man stated, and the two children of Apollo stood.

"You won't be taking him anywhere," Irene said coldly, but Eliott ignored her, looking over his friend instead, who avoided his gaze.

"I can't go back Eliott," Jacob said quietly.

"Of course you can, the only ones everyone knows are gone are those three," he gestured to Irene, Blake and Ace, "You and Skylar still have a chance. There's no reason for you to be with them."

"Just me and Skylar?" Jacob asked, confused. Eliott nodded.

"I dreamt about what happened… there was nothing you could have done Jacob." Irene could tell from the strain in his voice that he was trying to keep it together for his friend. She put a comforting hand on her brother's shoulder as his eyes welled up with tears.

"Of course there was something I could have done," he said, his voice cracking, "I'm a healer, I-I could've been faster-"

"You would have killed yourself trying, kid," his sister said, "Karen wouldn't have wanted that if she had managed to live."

"But-"

"She died a hero's death, and Hades' judges will reward her accordingly," Eliott interrupted, "Please, just, come home. Let this end."

Jacob let out a sob, and his friend enveloped him in a hug. He held Jacob as he cried, teary eyed at the memory of their friend, and rubbed soothing circles into his back. They stood like that for some time, while Irene, who left to give them some space, and the other three watched from the table.

"Is he going to go back?" Skylar asked quietly.

"I don't know. Karen's the one who brought him into this mess, I'm not sure if he has any other motivation to stay," said Blake nonchalantly, continuing to eat his order of fries.

"I don't think Eliott would be swayed that easily to our side either," Irene noted, glaring at Blake for his use of a light tone of voice when they were talking about something so serious.

"We need more numbers if we're going to get what we want," Skylar stated, "His father may not be a minor god, but I'm sure he can at least agree that we demigods need to govern ourselves, and that ones with powers like his actually need to be trained with them."

"Possibly," Irene agreed, "I never really knew him. Ace?"

"What?"

"Well he's your cousin."

"Just because he's my cousin doesn't mean I know him," he said, irritated.

Irene would have returned that statement, if it wasn't for the deep roar that came from a nearby alleyway and the panicking of the few pedestrians in the area. The demigods spun around to face the source of the noise, a lioness, larger than an elephant and gleaming gold as if it was its own source of light, stalking out of the shadows. Blake unsheathed his sword and Irene readied her bow before Ace could stop them. The daughter of Apollo let loose a volley of arrows at its face, and they would have blinded it. Instead, to her horror, they splintered on impact and fell dead, ineffective. The lion gave out another roar as Irene swore.

"Weapons can't hurt it guys! Didn't you pay any attention in class at all?!" Ace yelled over the noise.

"What even is it?!" Jacob screamed.

"Nemean Lion, Herakles killed it as the first of his twelve labors!"

"Why do you know so much about your siblings?" Eliott asked as they ran around the block for cover, Skylar pulling the large green dumpsters into the road behind them in hope of tripping the thing up

"Who gives a shit?!" Blake shrieked, "How the fuck do we kill it?!"

"I think he strangled it but I don't think getting that close to it is going to be a good idea."

"No shit sherlock."

"You asked, dickwad," Ace scowled.

"Boys this really isn't the time!" Eliott growled as the circled back to where they started, "Rosales, how well do you think you can get a charge going?"

"Uh… depends? How big are we talking?"

Blake deflected a swipe of the lion's claws with his sword, and ducked when Irene and Jacob launched one of the round metal picnic tables at it's face.

"I'm going to try and bubble it in water, see if I can make it drown, you blast it, k?"

"Got it."

"Get that thing onto the docks guys!" Eliott yelled, making the water rise in a wave behind him.

"Drop all your metal and run!" Ace followed up. The air began to smell like ozone. Jacob decided to play it risky and bait it, to Eliott's aggravated horror, but causing the desired effect before jumping the dock to a small parked boat and leaping his way down the the line of them, getting as far from Ace as possible until he landed on the wooden dock again with a roll. The sea crashed down on the giant creature, and it thrashed, before electricity came booming bright through the air, through the water and everything the water was touching, thrashing, smouldering, burning under the water until it dissipated into dust, dead.

The two boys promptly fell over, both exhausted. Jacob ran over, swearing heavily in greek, to Eliott, who had an obvious discharge burn across his right hand. When Ace sat up and saw it he looked like he was going to cry. Blake put a hand on the boy's shoulder and sheathed his sword as Jacob's hands glowed with warmth, repairing his friend's damaged skin. The three boys were left thoroughly exhausted.

"This," Eliott said, gesturing with his left hand, "Is precisely why I need to take you home."

"This," Jacob mimicked, irritated, "Is precisely why I need to stay."

"Stay? With people you've only known for a month and a half vs me and the place you've known for years already?" The betrayal in his voice made Jacob look away, and brought pained expressions to the faces of the other four demigods.

"I get that Olympus is the only place you've ever know El, but, things need to change there. They won't even teach you or Ace how to use your powers,-"

"Of course not, their dangerous!"

"Yes but that kind of ignorance is what gets people killed!" Jacob snapped, and Eliott looked startled at the boy's sharp tone of voice. "If you're so worried about me then stay, because I'm not going back there. Nothing you say will make me change my mind."

Eliott nodded sadly, then looked around at the others.

"What are your reason for being here?"

"Well, banishment obviously," Ace chuckled darkly, "But aside from what your boyfriend said there-" they both blushed furiously, "We need to change how the voting system amongst the gods work, and we need one as demigods alone as well."

"It isn't fair for there to only be representation of the main twelve while there are a hundred," Skylar stated, "And rebellion is the only way government ever changes. That's why I'm here."

"So you want to overthrow Zeus?" Eliott asked her skeptically.

"Not really, no, he just shouldn't be allowed to make decisions completely by himself. He doesn't seem to be capable of unbiased judgment."

Ace snorted at this statement.

"Especially when a rule he put into place had hands in whatever went wrong," he added.

"Which brings us back to the whole 'training the powered like their non-powered because not everyone has powers and those who do are a possible threat to the gods' situation," Skylar stated, "It's a relatively circular issue."

"So what's it gonna be water-boy?' Irene asked, "You with us or what?"

"I'm going to need some time to think about it."

 **Please rate and review, especially with all of the new demigod OCs! I would really appreciate feedback on how you guys feel about them individually or the whole group and their motivations!**


	13. Chapter 13

**I'm really sorry this took so long, but it should be lengthy enough to make up for the wait. Reviews and feedback are always encouraged! (It's motivating to be honest it helps me get things done.) So girl bonding and sister meeting and things now! Also some foreshadow into Sigrid's character ;).**

M'gann knocked on Sigrid's door. It was nearly eleven in the morning, and the girls had decided to go out into town for a girl's night out before Zatanna left, and wanted to see if Sigrid wanted to join the three of them. Sadly, Rocket wouldn't be joining them, because she was doing the same thing with her family.

"Sigrid? Can I come in?" she called through the door.

"Yes," came the muffled reply, and she opened the door. Sigrid was sitting at her desk, hair in a ponytail that clumped together in three thick curls, bangs a wavy mess. She was scribbling something into her journal when she turned and looked at M'gann.

"Hey, so, Artemis and I are going into the city to hang out with Zatanna before she leaves tomorrow, and we wanted to know if you wanted to come with us."

"Sure, when are you leaving?"

"Half an hour from now, meet us by the front exit," M'gann left with a smile, and Sigrid finished what she had been writing down, rolling the cinnamon candy around her tongue as she looked over what was on the lines of paper. It was a description of the people in her dream, what happened, and where she saw. She couldn't think of anything else to put down, so she set the journal aside and put her colored pens back into their holder.

Sigrid went to her wardrobe and pulled out a tulip yellow sundress with white lace along the bottom and edges of the short sleeves. She matched this with a pair of gladiator sandals. When she was putting in her earrings she noticed that her face and arms were freckling again from the sunlight. When she was done with her eye makeup she grabbed her purse and went to the front exit of the cave and waited for the other three girls. In five minutes they were all walking away from the mountain.

"So where do you think we should go?" Artemis asked, putting her hair back in a white headband that matched her t shirt. She wore a pair of jean shorts and sneakers, since she knew they'd be walking a lot.

"We could get coffee and then go to a park," Zatanna suggested.

"Well, it's your day, we can do whatever you want."

"Coffee shop," she decided.

"Which one?" M'gann joked. There were a lot of coffee shops near the coast where they were.

"Empire Tea and Coffee. Then we can go down Broadway to Washington Square and cut through the Wharf mall to Perrotti."

"Good plan," Artemis said, and they made their way to Newport. They got various iced coffees, and talked about the town as Sigrid got adjusted to the place. Eventually they got to the small park between the busy street and the docks, and sat in a circle in the shade under a tree.

"So," Artemis said, after taking a sip from her straw, "Now that we're in an empty place where our conversation is conveniently drowned out by traffic to everyone that walks past," Zatanna grinned, "How did your boyfriend take the news?"

Her grin vanished, and she frowned.

"Not that great, but, he knows I want to do it, he isn't really complaining…"

"Have you two been doing okay?" M'gann inquired, concerned.

"You having boy problems?" asked Artemis. Zatanna sighed.

"Not really, it's just…"

The two gave each other worried glances, before looking back at their friend.

"I feel like he doesn't trust me," she said, hints of sadness and anger in her voice.

"Why do you think that?" Sigrid asked.

"We've been dating half a year already and he won't even let me see his face! Like, I get not telling me his identity, even though Wally knows, but," she sighed, exasperated and stared at the ground, "But a first name and an eye color isn't going to tell me exactly who he is!"

"Have you told him that?"

"I don't want to push him away by bothering him though, he's really defensive about it," she paused, taking a drink, "And I don't get why he would trust Wally with it and not anyone else on the team! I know they've known each other the longest but he should be able to trust all of us like that!"

"Well, I think his identity is tied with Batman's though," M'gann brought up, "So giving out his would be like giving both."

"Yeah, I know, which means neither of them trust us to know who they are."A sense of solemn silence fell on the group. "I just- I can't be with someone if they can't trust me enough to let me _know_ them," she said quietly.

"You're breaking up with him?!" Artemis and M'gann nearly yelled in shock.

"I've been thinking about it, but, I don't know. I don't want it to tear up the team if it happened. I don't know if we'd be able to go back to just being friends."

"Well, you'll have three months to think about it," Artemis noted, and Zatanna nodded.

"Let's talk about something else," M'gann stated finally, after a long silence filled with the sound of rushing cars and the waves.

Wonder Woman was at the cave when the girls got back, and she pulled Sigrid to the side to talk with her in the mission briefing room.

"Hey, I just wanted to check up on you. Seems like you're getting along well with the rest of the team."

Sigrid nodded.

"What have you been up to?"

"Stuff, and training."

Diana sighed.

"I want to make sure you're adjusting well."

"I'm adjusting fine."

"Alright, well, if you ever need or want to talk to me, just call."

As Diana began to walk away, Sigrid spoke up.

"Diana?" she asked, and the woman turned. "What's Olympus like for Demigods?"

"I'm not sure Sigrid, I was on Themyscira where I was born before I came to try and bring peace and justice to mankind."

"Would Zeus ban people from there?"

"Possibly, I don't know what would cause him to do that. Why do you ask?"

"No reason. I just thought about it."

"Do you have any other questions?"

"No."

"Alright then, have a good day."

"You too."

"So," M'gann said, pulling a basket of nail polish out from under her bed, "What colors do you guys want?"

The four girls were sitting in a circle on the floor of M'gann's room, prepared to play Uno and get nail polish stains all over their fingers trying to paint their toenails. They chose their colors. Artemis got a shimmery tomato red, Zatanna chose a deep blue, M'gann a rosey pink, and Sigrid a leafy green.

"So Sigrid, how are you liking Rhode Island?" Zatanna asked, unscrewing the bottle in her hands and looking at the girl in question.

"It looks a lot like my home town," Sigrid replied sadly, "With all of the water and little island spaces with only small streets connecting them. All the building's are different though."

"Where were you born?" Zatanna asked curiously.

"Kotka, on the coast of Finland where everything is mostly water."

"Do you miss it?"

"Some, normally we would go back there for my birthday, and go around to all of the parks and the walking trail, but…" she shrugged dismissively, and smiled, "Can't get on a plane, for something that used to just be a few hour road trip." The girls stared at her as she went back to painting her nails like nothing happened, weirded out by how her moods had switched back and forth so quickly.

"You okay Sigrid?" Artemis asked, eyebrows raised.

"Mhm," she hummed lightly, not looking up. They all exchanged unsure glances, but went back to what they were doing. After about a minute of silence Sigrid looked at them.

"I have green toes," she stated.

"Same," M'gann said without missing a beat, changing her toes from her human coloring to her 'original' martian coloring.

Artemis and Zatanna burst out into snorts of laughter, but Sigrid just looked around confused.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"You said toes instead of just toenails like you meant, and M'gann made her toes green to mirror what you said," Artemis explained, grinning.

"Oh!" Sigrid exclaimed quietly, and then began to giggle with them, now understanding M'gann's joke.

They sat and gossiped about books and their boyfriends and school, making it a running joke during Uno for Sigrid and Zatanna to pull a reverse or skip card just before Artemis's turn. Then Sigrid made sandwiches, eating two, Artemis joking about her having the metabolism of her boyfriend. Sigrid frowned, and said that Mirja told her it was just because she was a demigod.

"On top of the, what, 5 hours of training you do a day?" Artemis asked.

"Eh… I'm not sure swimming counts as training," Sigrid said.

"I've never seen you in the pool, when do you have time to do that?" Zatanna asked.

"I do it after I wake up."

"When's that?"

"4:30."

The statement was met with horrified gasps.

"Do you get any sleep at all?" Artemis exclaimed, distracted from the fact that she had again been thwarted by Zatanna putting down a red skip card.

"I get enough."

"My makeup can conceal the bags under my eyes but can it conceal the regret," Zatanna said, and the girls burst into laughter.

"When the JL's too lazy to do the overnight stakeout missions themselves," Artemis added, and the giggling returned.

It was a good night.

Sigrid woke up at 4:30 to her alarm clock. Standing up with a stretch she saw two small boxes and a letter on her dresser. Confused, she slowly walked over and picked up the piece of paper. She was surprised when she read it.

 **D!**

It said in her father's handwriting. She had lost track of the date a while ago already. It hadn't occurred to her when the team celebrated their fourth of July that it meant her birthday was only two days away.

 **YO E. YOU.**

 **,**

 **R**

Inside the box the card was on was a silver hair clip with opal set into it. The opal was in three sections, and when Sigrid unclasped it, she saw why. The middle section could flip over. On the other side was obsidian. In the bottom of the box was a smaller note.

 **, N. , , U. Y.**

The next box did not have a note to go with it. It was a bracelet with a Stygian iron broad sword hanging from it. The charm attached to the chain with a lobster clasp, and when Sigrid undid it and took it off it glowed and grew to full size. It was weighted perfectly to her hand. The grip was a silvery leather, and the guard was regular steel along with the pommel. The whole shape of the hand piece shaping to make her father's sign, the pommel being a solid sphere inside a crescent shape with sharp points. She hooked her bracelet to a side of the crescent and it closed, shrinking back down to a charm quickly.

Now she had her own weapon, instead of the one passed down from her mom. She found it strange that Hades hadn't left a note with this one as well though.

She put on a racing suit, grabbing her cap and goggles before putting on a pair of running shorts and a T-shirt over it, and went to the kitchen. She had a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast before going to the chlorinated pool to swim. (Kaldur had his own saltwater one a room over, since chlorine could cause a pretty nasty gill infection for atlanteans.) At about 6:30 she got out, undid her braids to squeeze water out of her thick hair like a sponge, and re-did them. After drying herself off she put her clothes back on and got her sparring gear from her room, including the animated training dummy. She was in the training room a long time, practicing her transition from weapon to weapon until her clothes were wet with sweat. At 7:30 she stretched and took a shower, going back to the kitchen where people were awake again at about 8 to eat another breakfast. It was the routine she had worked out since coming to the cave. She said good morning to people, thanked them when they said happy birthday, and mixed oats and honey in with her yogurt before sitting down at the counter. She turned on her phone and it buzzed with messages.

Kiarra had sent her an aggressive but well meaning text of " **Happy birthday you elusive ass nerd** " while Matthieu had opted for a more traditional "Happy birthday :)". The third name made her pause guiltily. Susan Kistler, the school counselor. She was a nice, middle aged woman, calm and collected with a small office that she had decorated to her taste, giving it a less official atmosphere to make students more comfortable. She had always given Sigrid a space to cool down when she was frustrated with her reading and needed to leave the classroom, or if she had gotten into a fight. When Laura died it had become mandatory for her to go there during lunch once a week to talk about things, and Susan had given her her phone number in case she needed to talk outside of school. It was only natural for the woman to contact her eventually. No doubt the entire school knew the story Hades had covered what happened up with. Not that it mattered when she wouldn't be going back….

Sigrid opened the conversation. The message wished her a happy birthday, like the others. Underneath it Susan asked how things were going with her dad, and how she was liking living in America with him. Sigrid frowned. It was going to be hard to give her an answer to that. She decided to write as vaguely as she thought she could get away with, that things were going well between them as usual, and that she was getting along well with her extended family. (She could refer to them as family right? That'd be the best way to avoid explaining it?) She wrote that she didn't quite like the larger cities, with so many people and signs she couldn't read and street plans she couldn't make sense of, (Gotham wasn't the best first American city experience, and she wouldn't quite describe where they had gone in Rhode Island as a 'city',) but that it was calmer and green outside the part she lived in, and that she liked that place.

Her phone buzzed about thirty seconds later with a reply, but before she could read it the air tingled with energy.

"Where's that magical lil' shit sister of mine?" The sound of Melinoë's mezzo voice rang down through the hallway, making Sigrid look up and the conversation in the kitchen grind to a halt. The goddess walked down the stone hallway, black boots making her footsteps sound heavier. When she came into the light of the rec room Sigrid saw that her older sister had ditched the traditional greek toga look for something more 'recent'. 'Recent' being a black leather jacket, tight fitting red t-shirt, and ripped jeans. Her hair was in a fishtail braid over her shoulder, the black and blonde strands mixing together to make an interesting effect, leaving only her side swept bangs to hide the darker half of her face. (Or forehead, as that's all that they covered.) Wolf howled, and the goddess smirked. The air buzzed again, and behind Melinoë Makaria, in a white knee-length sleeveless dress, came running, skidding to a halt behind her older sister. The two goddesses, in the age appearances of twenty somethings, stood there a few seconds as the team and their little sister stared at them before Melinoë cleared her throat.

"We didn't miss the date did we because gosh golly that'd be real fuckin' awkward." She received a slap on the head from Makaria.

"No swearing in front of the children!" Makaria scolded, but the recipient only looked amused.

"Mak they're teenagers and they've been around C for a month I'm pretty sure they've heard the word 'fuck' before. Anyway, happy birthday kiddo, thanks for giving us a reason to get out of the manor."

"You… know these people?" Conner asked, eyebrow raised as Robin and M'gann looked to Sigrid for an explanation.

"They're my sisters, Melinoë Goddess of ghosts and Makaria Goddess of the Isle of the Blessed," Sigrid stated. Conner narrowed his eyes as he watched Melinoë happily pet an enthusiastic Wolf.

"So how've you been holding up?" Makaria asked, switching petting duty with her sister.

"Fine," Sigrid shrugged, and Melinoë pulled a chair up to the counter.

"Lookit you, getting freckles from the sun, you might actually have some greek in you yet," the eldest joked, poking Sigrid in the cheek and earning herself a grin. Then the woman turned to the three others in the kitchen.

"So, these are the Justice League twerps C's been runnin' with hm?" She eyed Robin with a twinkling eye that gave him the feeling that she knew too much. "Interesting group. Where are the others?"

"The other's don't live here," Sigrid stated. Melinoë quirked her eyebrows. "Last time I checked the bird's nest was in Gotham, did daddy B put you into an early retirement or something?"

"How do you know all of that?" Robin asked harshly, instead of answering her question. The woman smiled. It was not a kind smile.

"Gotham runs rampant with tortured souls and bleeds enough vengeance to flood the streets, it's one of my favorite cities," the woman said cooly, her casual air being replaced by something dangerous. "But I'm not here to talk about work. I'm here to hang out with my little sister. She could use some help with her Greek. We can gossip about your time here and Mak can read you those magic books you like while you take notes, sound like fun kid?"

"Sure," Sigrid nodded, finishing her second breakfast and getting up to put the bowl in the dishwasher.

Makaria eventually followed them to Sigrid's room, reluctantly being pulled away from Wolf. When they got there Melinoë pulled the desk chair over to the bed, where Sigrid sat, and Makaria took her place in the rocking chair.

"So," the bronze skinned goddess began, "cute team you have here."

Sigrid grinned, turning a bit pink.

"Yeah, but it's not like that. They're kind of all dating eachother already anyway."

"Too bad," Melinoë mused, "You and that little bird have been hanging out quite a bit."

Sigrid's flush deepened.

"How did you-"

"I keep my eyes out," the eldest winked, and Makaria giggled.

"It isn't like that! Besides he's dating someone else. And I don't think I could anyway…"

"Why, 'cuz he's a guy?"

"No because…" she sighed in annoyance, "Nevermind. I'm not doing that. With anyone."

"That's fair. You're still young, even by demigod standards, but you're getting there. Rememer that."

Sigrid chuckled darkly at her sister's advice.

"I'm the last person you need to remind of that."

The room was silent for a couple of beats before Melinoë switched topics again.

"You're a lil' beefier than you were when you left the manor kid, you've been training?"

"A bit," Sigrid shrugged."

"Why?"

Sigrid pursed her lips.

"Something's comming. And I'm going to be ready for it."

It didn't take them long to set up the surprise party, especially with Wally's help. A few members of the league were there, along with the team. Diana was concerned when the look on her cousin's face leaned more towards frightningly startled than pleasantly surprised at finding them all in the kitchen, but it all eventually melted into a smile. She tried to stay near and talk to her, improve their relationship, but after introducing her to Flash, Captain Marvel and Red and Green Arrow she decided to leave Sigrid to be with her friends. Bruce's advice was going to have to be used another day. She couldn't help but look over when she heard laughter, comming mostly from Sigrid. M'gann and Conner looked very pleased with themselves.

"You remembered that?" Diana heard her cousin say.

"Hey, at least you'll know where all of the cities we talk abut are now," Conner joked, and Diana saw that Sigrid was holding a map of the United States, about the size of a wall calendar. Diana sighed, not knowing what the joke was, but glad that her cousin was getting along so well with the team. That was when she was pulled away by the black haired goddess, who looked much like herself.

"Sister Diana, it's nice to meet you," the woman said, "I'm Makaria, and this is Melinoë, sister of Sigrid. We'd like to speak to you."

"What is it you wish to speak about?" Diana asked. The three of them spoke quietly.

"I'm here with a warning," Melinoë said, "Something's been going on with Tartarus, and monsters have been reforming faster than they should. We don't know what's going on yet, but my father said that when he was up on Olympus for the Solstace things were tenser than usual, tenser than they had been even during the winter. Something is going on."

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"Nothing. But Sigrid knows things. I don't know how, but she's preparing for something and it's nothing good." The goddess sighed. "Be careful, Diana. The human world is a dangerous place for you demigods. It would be a shame for someone like you to get hurt." There was a pause of silence. "Now that thats done, it's nearl nightfall. I have cities to haunt." With that Melinoë stepped innto the shadows and was gone. Makara nodded in agreement.

"I too have work to be doing," she said, making eye contact with Sigrid and waving. With that goodbye, she was gone as well, and Diana was left to wonder over what she had been told.

 **So some ways I could go with the next chapter that you guys will have some influence on if you give me feedback: Either more of the rebel demigod arc, or some of what's going on on Olympus. Your vote!**


	14. Chapter 14

He was gone. She had looked everywhere. Every grove, every park, every dorm he would have reason to be in and he was gone. She was furious. Everyone always moved aside for her when she went into town, but it was hard to not notice a stark white seven foot woman stalking angrily towards the pavilion at the center of the square. Luckily for him, the man she was looking for was already there, sharpening arrows for the archery lesson he was teaching that afternoon.

"Chiron. We need to talk."

"And what would that be about my dear?" the man asked with a smile, rising to a standing position only a few inches taller than her own, but she was having none of that today.

"My son is gone. I've checked everywhere he isn't on Olympus."

"I don't know who you're referring to Aspis, there are many demigods under your care."

"And yet only one whom I've raised since infancy and calls me 'mom'," she said, irritated.

"You speak of Mr. Taylor, I presume? I'm sure you have nothing to worry about. He's a good young man."

"Yeah, well so was Alexander Rosales, and so were Jacob and Karen, but they're gone too and if you don't pay more attention to this you're going to have a big problem on your hands I don't care what Zeus wants or doesn't want you to do," she snapped, large and solid chlorophyll green eyes glaring dangerously, "Olympus may be Eliott's only home, but I can tell you for a fact that he'd rather be on earth fighting for his life alongside his friends than up here without them worrying constantly about their safety, and he isn't the only kid up here like that, so if more end up following Rosales and his little crusade down you're going to have to begin to confront this. This makes four children now Chiron, Four, who aren't banished and who have run away. Whatever is going on needs to be addressed before others start getting ideas."

Chiron sighed.

"Aspis, you know I wish what happened with Alexander's quest hadn't just as much as you and Rowan do, but I can't over rule Zeus."

"Well maybe you should actually bother to teach kids how to use their damn powers so they don't accidentally kill someone next time!"

"You know I'm not allowed to do that Aspis," Chiron said, keeping his voice level, but she could see the mixture of hurt and sadness in his eyes.

"Well maybe that's just one of the things that needs to change then," the dryad growled, before turning away and stomping off.

"There is always a chance they'll come back Aspis, just be hopeful!" The centaur called after her, and she huffed. She went to the dorm buildings she was in charge of, the ones with her grove growing protectively around them, and melted into the oldest tree. She was afraid for him. The fact that he hadn't been on earth since his mother tried to give him up for adoption after he was born did not help.

Soon she was distracted however, by a friend of hers. Rowan, a short, less reedy looking Dryad than Aspis, who looked after the dorm across the street from Aspis's grove.

"I heard about your boy," Rowan sympathized sadly when Aspis left her tree.

"Well, after Jacob and Karen left it was only a matter of time I suppose."

Rowan nodded.

"They have Blake with them. If they're going to be on the streets he's the best guide they could have from here."

"You trust him?"

"It's the nature of his heritage for him to cause trouble. It isn't always purposeful."

Aspis sighed, looking up at the morning sky through her canopy. The sound of Rory yelling at Castor for who knows what could be heard from outside, but she ignored it. Pollux could deal with his sister just fine.

"So you think they'll be alright?"

"I can't say that I know, but I trust Blake to keep them safe, no matter what he has to do. He felt like it was his fault after all."

"How? The whole thing was Alexander's doing."

Rowan bristled.

"Not that he intended harm of course, Rowan."

"Of course. Blake felt that if he had been more careful and watchful Ace never would have had to use his powers, and this whole thing would have been avoided."

"Then he is a fool. What was done is done. There is no way around what the fates have sewn. The only thing that could have saved Alexander was the boy's own father, and he did nothing of the sort."

"Zeus, always a king before he's a father."

It was about 9:30, and Wally sat in his room, remembering for the second time that night that he didn't actually have homework to be doing because it was summer and he didn't even have school. His phone buzzed and he saw that it was a text from Dick, who was supposed to finally be back in Gotham tonight. Wally was concerned. Things either went really well, or terribly if Dick texted him.

 _Can I come over?_

"God damn it Bruce what did you do?" Wally muttered to himself as he typed out a reply.

Sure, I'll go unlock the back door so you can get in.

 _Wait hold on no_

What?

His window opened behind him, and he just about fell off of his bed.

"Jesus fucking Christ Dick you're going to give me a heart attack doing that," Wally breathed, running a hand through his hair in exasperation, "You do realize that you're supposed to go to someone's house _after_ you ask if it's okay and not the other way around right?"

Dick laughed.

"So, Sleepover?" Wally asked, eyeing the boys backpack, "What'd he do this time?" His friend let out a long sigh, and the two sat down on Wally's bed.

"Guess who has a new sibling?" Dick asked, the cheer in his voice as fake as his smile. Wally stared at him, dumbstruck.

"What?"

"Precisely!" Dick threw up his hands in exasperation and then pressed them into his forehead, elbows on his knees.

"You okay there buddy?"

"Do I look okay?"

"No."

"Shocking." They sat in silence for a bit before Dick spoke again. "It baffles me sometimes just how badly he plans things in regard to how others are going to feel about his decisions, like he didn't even tell me! Just after dinner took me to a guest room to introduce me to him with absolutely Zero Prior Warning! I can't."

Wally patted him on the back.

"Anything else?"

"Just… less than perfect timing for him to reveal something as serious as this so badly."

"What's the kids name?"

"Jason Todd. I'll get to his file later, find out what exactly happened. Bond over Bruce's sub-par antecedent planning skills when it comes to family issues. Or something. I don't know. This is gonna be weird. Do you think he knows, like, everything?"

"Maybe, if he doesn't we totally need to bet on how long it takes him to figure it out. How long did you go? A week?"

"About that, yeah." the boy wonder yawned, and Wally gave him an amused smile.

"Has a month off duty fixed your sleep schedule already? I'm surprised."

Then he caught the yawn, and it was Dick's turn to look amused.

"I'll have you know that my time is ahead of yours KF, and no, if I fell asleep now it's be a nap at best."

"May as well stay up and play videogames then," Wally said with a grin, and Dick laughed.

It's the eighth of July, warm and clear and blue, sun shining like a cheerful yellow eye in the sky above. It was a perfect day. She was going to do it.

"Sigrid?" she called, knocking lightly on the door, "It's Diana. I was wondering if you wanted to do something today."

The girl opened the door. Her hair was in frizzy curls from not being blown dry that morning, and past her her room was a mess. Diana could see several balls of yarn in different places on the floor, a tray of paint tubes in a similar place next to a white metal tray with dried smears of paint on it, and several different mounds of clothes near the hamper in the corner of the room by the door.

"Unless you're busy, of course," Diana continued.

"What were you thinking of?" Sigrid asked.

"We could go for a hike. Would you like that?"

Sigrid paused for a moment, and Diana was afraid she had brought something up that she shouldn't have before the girl nodded.

"There's a trail near here going along the sea. I was thinking we could go there."

"Sounds good, I'll get changed."

Eventually the two were outside along the coast, sunscreen over their bare arms and legs. Diana wore a blue t-shirt that matched her eyes, and Sigrid was in a pink tank top. They walked for a while in silence, the caws of gulls and the sound of the sea filling up the comfortable quiet between them.

"What are those called in english?" Sigrid asked eventually, pointing at the birds.

"Seagulls," Diana answered with a smile.  
"They're really loud."

"Yes, the are," she agreed, "Do you like birds?"

"Some. I like Sanderlings, and Stints, and Snipes, and rock doves, and swifts, and our robins are cute these American robins just look weird though, blue tits are cute, and I love crows. Your crows are all black though, we have the hooded ones with the white or grey bodies, not the all black ones. At least in Finland anyway. Carrions are all black, like the American ones are, but those are farther south."

"So you like birds?" Diana asked.

"Mhm. The crows back home like me because Mirja let me feed them. This one group of them always nested in the alders in the backyard and let me climb their trees."

"Hm."

They lapsed into silence again.

"So you like the team?" Diana asked after a few moments.

"Yeah. Everyone's nice."

"Black Canary's told me you train with them."

"Mhm."

"Do you want to be a part of it? Join them?"

Sigrid paused.

"I've thought about it. I'd be good on stealth missions. And I'm a good fighter."

"Canary's said that about you. Have you thought any more about it?"

"A bit."

Diana looked over at her, so she elaborated.

"I've drawn some costume designs, and thought of names with Robin."

Diana chuckled.

"You two seem oftly close."

"He's nice. And easy to talk to. He gets things."

"Like what?"

"Why I train all the time."

"And why's that?"

When the girl didn't respond immediately she looked over, and saw that her face was blank.

"It's nothing."

Diana ticked that off as a concern, but dropped the subject, not wanting to make Sigrid talk about something she clearly didn't want to bring up.

"What about the others on the team?" she asked, and while her expression didn't change she saw Sigrid's shoulders relax, glad for the subject change.

"M'gann and Conner are good to live with, and Zatanna is kind. I don't like sleeping so near them though. M'gann gets my nightmares, and then they ask questions."

"Do you not like it when people ask questions?"

"Not questions like that."

"Why not?"

"They don't need to know. Wally's a dork, and he likes my cooking. Artemis is funny, and Kaldur is just, nice. He has a good heart."

Diana sighed at the way Sigrid continued to avoid certain topics, but decided that it was best for now. They weren't close enough for her to really press the issue. Yet.

"So how did your outing with Sigrid go?" Bruce asked when Diana came back to the cave.

"It went well, thank you for the suggestion."

"Dick mentioned that she enjoyed being outside, so it wouldn't have been much of a stretch."

Diana smiled.

"The two are good friends."

"Yes, they are. Are you alright? You look concerned about something."

"She wants to join the team, but I'm not sure I would be the best mentor for her."

"Does she want you to be her mentor?"

"I'm not sure, but if she's going to be on the team she needs a mentor."

"It isn't quite a requirement," he said with a rare smile.

"Yes, but she's my responsibility, it only makes sense."

"Why do you think you wouldn't be the best mentor for her then?"

"She's… motivated differently. And we have different powers."

"What do you mean by 'motivated differently'?"

"She does what she thinks is right regardless of what we say, if anything she's more like you than she is like me."

Bruce was about to object to that statement, but she fixed him with a look that made him rethink that decision, and close his mouth.

"I think it may be good for her to be on the team. She trains regularly with them and by herself already, it would just be her joining them on missions that would be new."

"She trains with them?"

"Yes. Speaking of that, and her being friends with Dick, she said something while we were out that I was wondering about. She said that he understood why she trained so much. What does that mean?"

Bruce sighed.

"She probably feels that the death of her mother is her own fault, and wants to make sure nothing like it ever happens again."


	15. Chapter 15

**So I feel really bad because I really haven't updated at all i and this also doesn't really count as an update either, but I really feel like I need to explain what's been going on with the story and how it's been progressing to the people who actually follow this.**

 **The problem I have been facing is that I know where I'm going with the demigod plot. I know absolutely. Endgame stuff has been planned, semi set up, slightly foreshadowed, all that jazz. HOWEVER. I have no clue what to do for the DC connected half of the story, or how I would even really tie it in with the rebellion plot anymore. Which is why I've really been stalling with writing anything.**

 **My solution is this: In order to go on with the story I would have to start over and rewrite it as something independent. Which I will absolutely do. I've already been thinking of ways to change Sigrid's living conditions without changing her backstory, retconning a few details ( The planet sigils being used for the greek gods was dumb it would be for the roman gods only i wanted to fix that, also I technically mixed up Makaria and Melinoe in the beginning because Makaria is the one with unknown origin, while Melinoe is the combo of Zeus and Persephone but I stuck with the mistake anyway to not confuse anyone :/)**

 **So I really wanted to get feedback from you guys first before I did anything. Would you read this still if it lost the DC affiliation? I would probably put it on AO3 because you can put independent works there, but I am also considering putting it on my Figment account. This would all depend on your responses of course.**

 **As a teaser for the plot I wrote the Prophecy that will go along with this story ;)**

 _Vengeance long awaiting has given birth_

 _The daughter destruction will rise from the earth_

 _Night and chaos will combine as one_

 _To reap the harvest of what has begun_

 _Hearth will weep for her family divided_

 _Within the depths they will be misguided_

 _By the son of Zeus Olympus will fall_

 _And the child of magic will save them all_

 **LOL if anyone has read the Edith Hamilton Greek Mythology collection for English class like I have there is a part mentioned in the creation stories about Prometheus, on how he knew the name of the mother who would give birth to the son of Zeus that would replace him and uproot the gods from heaven but wouldn't tell him, which is why Zeus chained him to the rock with the bird yadda yadda yadda so ;). There's plenty of children of Zeus though like a good chunk of the gods not just Ace, and it won't be as easy as just him being against his father either. So please give feedback! Would you guys read this as an independent? If so, AO3 or Figment?**


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